


Why Him?

by Minimalisticmars



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: I suck at writing, M/M, Merperson Junkrat | Jamison Fawkes, Mutual Pining, My pacing is awful, but yeah, if you like cheesy romance and cliche fluff, mermaid au, this here is your fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-11
Updated: 2017-02-11
Packaged: 2018-09-07 18:46:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 25,668
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8811988
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Minimalisticmars/pseuds/Minimalisticmars
Summary: Who would ever think that a well-known and well-respected mershark would fall in love with a poverty-stricken merman? Certainly not either of them.





	1. City Inspection

**Author's Note:**

> Yo, this is my first fic I ever wrote in like... 3 years, so... go easy on me lmao  
> I love these two so much and of course I had to write a fic for these garbage boys eventually, so I picked one of my favorite AUs created by fingurken and kophing on Tumblr  
> Hope y'all like it!

Calm waves rolled and lapped at the sandy shore stretching underneath the wide expanse of the blue sky. It was clear, not a cloud in sight, which allowed all of the sun’s rays to reach the world below. A popular beach was full of all kinds of people taking a stroll, tanning, relaxing before the summer ended and they were sent back to work or school. The warm air was cooled by the occasional gust of wind, accompanying the sound of cheerful chattering, cries of seagulls, and lively music. Underneath the waves, much more farther than the shallow part of the shore, the sun’s rays fought through water to illuminate another busy location full of people. It was an unlikely city that most humans were completely unaware it even existed. But these people were different, not unlike humans and at the same time, a completely different species altogether.

“Common” mermaids swam about, getting chores done, lugging back nets full of dinner to their abodes, ducking in and out between tightly-knit coral caves to find their children, heading out to the market to see what good prices they could take advantage of. The entire city was erected by their hands, and they formed their own society deep down against a sloping underwater mountain near some volcanic vents. The settlement was alive and well, all kinds of sea creatures scuttling and swimming about, the water filled with the clicks and shrieks of these mermaids cheerfully chattering as they went about their day. An occasional school of dolphins would nose their way into the busy city and help some merpeople with their chores, allowing themselves to be petted by the merchildren in exchange for a fish or two. Colorful sea anemones, beautiful shells and intricate coral decorated the city, adding to the liveliness. 

Among these merpeople was a rather malnourished merman, just unfurling himself from his sleeping position inside of his own tiny coral cave at the outskirts of the city. He was a considerable distance from the heart of the city, where all the merchants and businesses were, but he liked it. Despite being friendly and rather outgoing, this merman liked the peace and quiet of the expansive ocean, away from all the chattering mermaids. And away from thieving hands, he mused as he looked around his abode in his lounging position. Every space was turned into a shelf lined with items, every nook and cranny stuffed full of junk and trinkets he found in his scavenging travels outside of the city. It was his hobby, what he was known for locally. Collecting human junk and garbage, turning it into something useful if it wasn’t already, and selling it. Merpeople of all ages would warn him that swimming so close to boats and shallow shores would get him caught and killed, but he never listened. His curiosity would never let him. His hobby earned him the fond name of “Junkfish”.

After admiring every item that filled his house, he finally swam up to the hole at the top of his abode and lifted the wooden hatch to take a peek out before exiting. Some occasional nasty surprises forced him to add the double-swinging hatch for quick entrance and exits, especially a run-in with one of the shark enforcers that left a deep scar on the side of his tail. Everyone feared the shark enforcers, and Junkfish wasn’t any different, even more so after that incident. 

He made sure the coast was clear and grabbed his small money pouch before wiggling out and paddling lazily to the market for some breakfast. His right arm was lost to a vicious fight with a human fisherman and thus, he couldn’t swim very fast, in addition to the fact that his tail fin was torn. 

Junkfish was indeed a shabby, torn up, and quite ugly merman for his kind. He was poor, didn’t have family or friends, and was covered in slimy filth due to his financial situation. The whirlpool baths in the public commons were way out of reach for him, it would take him several weeks of saving up for one quick clean up, which wasn’t even nearly important as eating. And so, poor Junkfish didn’t have a chance at being as popular or sought-out as he should have been. It stopped bothering him a long time ago. He figured just surviving was good enough for him. 

Unfortunately, today was the enforcer city inspection and every merperson remembered this, quickly gathering up their things and vacating the premises as fast as possible. However, Junkfish wouldn’t be joining them. He completely forgot about the monthly inspection, where the enforcers swim by, checking if the merpeople were taking care of the land. The land was so graciously allotted to the “common” mermaids by the more powerful and higher ranks in the echelon. They’d collect their share of profits from merchants and make sure no buildings were badly damaged. Mermaids left and right dashed through the waters, shutting doors and burrowing wherever they can. Junkfish was confused, rubbing his chin while he floated towards the now-empty market stalls. The last of the merchants were stuffing their inventory back into bags and making a beeline for their own homes, hoping they had enough to appease the enforcers and live to sell another day. Within minutes, the entire city was empty, even the regular fish and dolphins swimming far away out of sight. The only living creature out in the open was, of course… Junkfish. An increasingly confused Junkfish wondering why everyone stopped their usual routines until it dawned on him. As he was coming to the realization, the dreaded silhouettes of the enforcers swam into view, high above the city, making their way down. But they swam fast, their sleek and smooth tails beating against the water, their muscles rippling under their skin as they got closer and closer to the city. 

Junkfish panicked, remembering that it was quite a long way from the marketplace to his house, and the sharks were coming from that direction anyways, so he had nowhere to hide. He swam as fast as he could to a random merperson’s cave, knocking frantically on the door and begging to be let in, just for a second.  
The owner of the abode peeked out from a makeshift window and snarled, “You’re disgusting, look at you! Who would let you anywhere near them with that tail… go away! The sharks are already here!”

Junkfish wailed, beating on the door and crying out for help. If he sustained another hit from the powerful hands of a mershark twice as large as him, he would surely die. He barely survived the other encounter. With this in mind, he swam away frantically, eyes wide, mouth open, shrieking, clicking out pleas for anyone to help him, anyone. But his reputation got the best of him, every merperson peeking out and looking at him in disgust, mumbling that it was for the best, this poor idiot would finally be put out of his misery. Junkfish even offered some of the gold coins in pouch, begging for some mercy. But it was too late, the mersharks were here and they were swimming hungrily through the city, inspecting caves and makeshift buildings, making their way closer and closer towards Junkfish.

In a last ditch effort, he swam towards the merchant’s stalls in the marketplace and tried to wedge himself underneath them, hiding himself as best as he could. It didn’t work sadly, he was unable to hide all 15 feet (4.57 meters) of him under a small stall. 

A giant shadow loomed over him, bringing its face closer to his own and he looked up, gulped, and prayed for a quick death if he was going to have to die after all. Not only was he face-to-face with a shark enforcer, but he was face-to-face with the head of the enforcers himself; Makoshark.

Makoshark was the biggest, the baddest, and quite probably even the richest too. He was at least twice the size of Junkfish, all 20 feet (6.09 meters) of rippling muscle and fat. His formidable size was topped by an even more formidable expression on his face, silver hair sweeping over his scowl and sharp eyes boring straight into poor Junkfish’s soul. Their eyes met, Junkfish paralyzed with fear as Mako grunted, speaking slowly and growling in his own native language, much different than the “common” mermaids’ own. Junkfish finally found himself and mustered enough strength to force himself to shake his head. He clicked desperately in his own language, trying to tell Mako that he didn’t understand, that he wanted to live and not be hurt. He didn’t take his wide, unblinking eyes away from Mako the entire time. Mako, confused, blinked and realized that this straggly runt of a mermaid was quite possibly uneducated, unable to speak more than his own language. He shook his head, thought for a while, and then wondered if this was the same fish he heard so much of from the other merpeople. The one who constantly leaves the city to swim near humans and steal their things…

“Do you speak this human language? English?” He finally rumbled, studying Junkfish’s face for any reaction. He got one. Junkfish nodded enthusiastically before unfolding from the stall a little more and opening his mouth wide.

“Yes!! Yes!! No eat, please no eat!” Junkfish cried in broken English, and Mako grinned his terrible toothy grin, intimidating the small fish even more. He stared like a deer in headlights as Mako grabbed his arm and pulled him out of his pathetic hiding place. 

This is it, this is the end. This is how I die, Junkfish thought as he whimpered and covered his face with his only arm, preparing to be torn in half and eaten.  
However, the sharp serrated teeth that he expected on his skin never came. Instead, a large webbed hand rested on his back and pushed him gently away from the stalls. Confused, he opened his eyes and looked up. The mershark simply made shooing motions with his hands. “Go on now, get out of here and go home before the others find you. I’ll tell them to leave you alone. Go.”

Junkfish stared in awe before nodding and swimming away as fast as he could, not hesitating a second, lest he’d make the enforcer angry. Mako watched as the skinny tail disappeared quickly behind the coral caves, and called out to one of the enforcers to not touch the scrawny merman with the torn up tail.


	2. The Ring

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright, this chapter is weird and I wish I hadn't jumped so ahead of myself so quickly but here we are. It's too late, we're just gonna roll with it lmao. Image in the story is by [jjscratches](jjscratches.tumblr.com)  
> Yeah, I'm thinking new chapters will be posted every Saturday! And I guess there'll be a payoff in the end but not sure what... I guess I'll sit on it for a bit. Until then, hope y'all enjoy!

Mako lounged comfortably in his small library, resting atop soft cloth and plush pillows. Despite the fact that he had a book placed on his lap to read, he toyed with his necklace of teeth, his trophies clinking together in the palm of his massive hand as he thought about the inspection yesterday. It went well, as usual. The buildings and homes seemed in order, the right amount of “taxes” were collected efficiently and without trouble, none of the other enforcers saw the little merman as he made his way back home.

 

All was well. Mostly.

 

Mako was a larger-than-life mershark. His power was real, as stories of his encounters and adventures were passed around homes and cities across the ocean from mersharks and merpeople alike. Even the royal family, rulers of the kingdom in which both the common mermaids and his cities were part of, commended him for his bravery and strength. When ranked, he was above all of the mersharks and just below the royal army. He was rich for his kind, big for his kind, and definitely getting old. Merpeople of all kind tried to court him, enamoured by his amazing legends, his large stature. But he was never interested in anyone, ever. His friends would joke that he would die _old and alone_ if he didn’t find a mate and produced children immediately, but the thought of that alone disgusted him beyond reason. Besides, establishing a family would put a hold on his adventures. A docile life would prevent him from travelling far out into the ocean, killing as he pleased and generally living how he wanted.

 

 _And yet,_ despite his own reputation… when he finally met the actual merman he’s heard so much of face-to-face, he was taken aback. The tales of that particular merman came to him in the form of complaints, but he commended that little fish’s bravery for traversing so close to human turf all in the name of collecting their junk, even though he agreed it was unnecessarily dangerous and the habit should be stopped. Anyone who had come to him with worries that the fish was an actual menace to their hidden society always described him as ugly, scrawny, weak, disgusting, etc. And yet, Mako thought none of those things as he stared the merman down at the marketplace. Scrawny, sure, but nothing a few pounds of fish and a whirlpool bath couldn’t fix. In fact, that merman was… more good-looking than Mako expected.

 

 _God, what am I thinking. I don’t actually like him, do I?_ Mako mused as he turned a tooth around in between his fingers. _Why him?_ He decided to make up his mind and pay the mermaid city another visit. Just by himself. Just to sate his curiosity.

* * *

 

When he finally reached the heart of the city, merpeople left and right ducked and swam out of his way, staring in wonder at the giant mershark who commanded the very group they were all terrified of. They stared at his necklace, knowing exactly what each tooth belonged to, and stared at his massive arms and hands, knowing exactly what they could do. He swam lazily about, letting only his powerful tail propel him around. He stopped at stalls and contemplated prices, eventually swimming past trembling merchants and terrified customers. He found a bar, a popular haunt for many merpeople to sit, relax, and socialize. He could barely squeeze his shoulders past the door, but he managed, and immediately sought after the owner of the place.

 

 _Can you speak my language?_ He asked the bartender right off the bat in his native language. The mermaid nodded and gulped, clearly shocked. _Are you the owner?_

 

 _N-no. I can get… the owner. Please wait!_ the mermaid spoke back hesitantly, and with a flash of pink scales, she was gone behind a thick curtain of seaweed. The merpeople in the bar stirred and murmured quietly, staring at Mako with wide eyes. He pushed down the urge to glare at them and tapped the counter with his claws impatiently as he waited. Within minutes, the owner emerged from the curtains and swam slowly up to meet Mako. She was an elderly woman with silver hair like Mako’s and a dark blue tail. Unlike all the other merpeople, she smiled warmly and took his hand in both of her smaller ones to shake. Mako liked that. He smiled back, though his looked a lot more terrifying with his rows of teeth. It still didn’t seem to put the owner off.

 

 _How may I help you, commander Mako?_ Her voice was a bit scratchy but warm and honey-like nonetheless.

 

 _You can just call me Mako_ , he replied, folding his arms on his chest and glancing around before leaning in a bit closer. The owner also leaned closer, recognizing his body language. _You don’t happen to know this city and… its inhabitants very well, do you?_

 _  
_ _Of course I do, I have lived here since birth, sir._

 

 _Mm. And… you wouldn’t happen to know of a very skinny and very… beat up merman that lives here? Orange tail, torn fins, one arm…_ Mako looked visibly nervous, hoping he was speaking too quietly for anyone within earshot. It was bad enough he was attracting so much attention already, he wouldn’t hear the end of it from his friends if they found out he was trying to look for a poor little runt of a merman. Luckily, the owner was gracious enough to secretly whisper his whereabouts to him, without judgement. At least, Mako hoped so.

 

He thanked her and went on his way, quickly slipping past groups of children, dolphins and fish, heading to the outskirts of the city. The farther he went, the less houses there were, giving way to the dark and expansive ocean ahead. It tugged at his wanderlust for a second before he came back to the present and continued his search. He didn’t have to look for long. There was the merman right there, yawning and stretching lazily on top of his tiny coral abode, throwing up and catching a shiny silver ring that caught what little rays of sunshine reached this place. It glinted tantalizingly, Mako keeping his eye on the ring as he slowly and quietly made his way up to the abode. He made sure to swim around the house, out of the merman’s peripheral vision before popping up and leaning casually on the coral.

 

“Finally found you.” He rumbled with a grin, watching as the fish shot off with a shrill shriek. The merman flapped his arm around, squawking and swimming in a circle. He ducked behind a large rock nearby and kept his saucer-round eyes trained on Mako’s huge form, clutching the ring tightly in his hand.

 

“Relax, I’m not here to hurt you,” Mako simply stated, before slowly making his way over to the merman. “I’m just here to learn your name. I’ve heard a lot about you.”

 

He waited patiently as the fish blinked, glanced around and paused for a bit before opening his mouth to speak. Amused, Mako noted that it was a bit of habit of his. Cute habit, kind of.

 

“M-my name… Junkfish!” He chirped excitedly, immediately hiding behind the rock again as if he just spouted an insult and expected punishment for it. Mako slowly inched his way around the rock to reach him, speaking while doing it in hopes of distracting the little merman.

 

“Junkfish? In human languages, that doesn’t seem like a real name. What’s your actual name?”

  
“U-uhm… J-Junk-…I... uhm, I not know.” He stuttered shyly, noticing Mako’s careful advances and copying them to get farther away. He grinned wide, extremely nervous and confused as to why a giant mershark capable of killing _whales_ was right outside of his house and actively looking for him.

 

“Say it to me in your language.” Mako demanded, looking hungrier with each passing minute.

 

And Junkfish did, trying very hard to remember what it was that the humans nicknamed him when he swam up and greeted them that one time. He had actually established communication with the species that all merpeople loathed and feared, but he was never going to admit that to anyone, no matter how proud he was. That would practically be a death penalty, especially with the head of the enforcers right here outside of his own home.

 

“Jamie!” he suddenly cried as the name finally popped up in his head, and he laughed nervously when he noticed Mako was getting much closer than expected.

 

“Hmmm…” Mako’s deep and gravelly voice thrummed through Jamie’s body, that’s how close he was. Jamie backed up against the rock, the nervous grin starting to turn into an animalistic bearing of his teeth as Mako got even closer. The mershark’s massive form blocked off any escape route Jamie had before, so he was preparing to fight and give him hell at any sign of danger.

 

None came, Mako simply held his arm gently against the rock and brought up another massive hand to stroke Jamie’s face softly. The little merman was absolutely terrified, paralyzed yet again as the shark studied his face and stroked his only arm. Then, he brought his hand down to poke at the stub that was Jamie’s other arm. That garnered a terrible reaction, Jamie hissing menacingly and writhing against rock at the touch. Mako hushed him, attempting to calm him down by running his fingers through his hair, touching his face lovingly. After a few more minutes that felt like hours, Jamie relaxed enough to let Mako run his fingers down his face, down to his shoulder to massage it for a bit, down to his waist. Mako’s huge hand wrapped itself entirely around Jamie’s skinny waist, his other hand petting his head gently. If this situation wasn’t as bizarre as it was, Jamie would be in pure bliss. But it was, and he wasn’t. Not entirely. As Mako explored his malnourished body, he didn’t dare take his eyes away from him, letting his own eyes explore Mako back.

 

His crippling fear from before didn’t let him truly take in Mako. His bulging biceps and large hands were the first thing Jamie took the liberty of staring at. Then, it was the powerful chest and large gut that pinned him against the rock next. Slowly up, until their eyes met and Jamie glanced at the display of strung-up teeth floating in front of him, which made Mako smile.

 

“Impressed?” Mako’s deep voice interrupted the temporary silence between the two. Jamie nodded slowly, wide eyes pinned on Mako’s heavy-lidded ones. The reply seemed to please the large shark, as he let out a belly-deep laugh, making Jamie titter his own shrill laugh in return. Hey, they were having fun. Maybe this wasn’t so bad after all!

 

Then, without warning, Mako pushed off of the rock and swam a bit back before triumphantly holding up a familiar glint of silver. His grin grew devilishly wide as Jamie gaped at him. “Thanks for the repayment for letting you… _off the hook_ yesterday.” Mako rumbled a deep chuckle before harshly adding, “Your welcome, _little runt._ ”

 

He swam off with a thunderous laugh, the ring glinting mockingly at Jamie as it eventually disappeared along with its thief. Jamie searched himself and the rock in order to confirm that what really happened, really happened.

 

It did. Well then.

 

Jamie leaned on the rock and gazed in the direction that Mako swam off in. After a few minutes of thinking, he laughed to himself. He couldn’t even be mad, that was pretty clever. After all, it would’ve been stupid to assume that such an amazing shark like Mako would be remotely interested in someone as pathetic as him. With a sigh, Jamie slowly returned back to his abode.


	3. A Little Gift

A week passed, and Mako still could not believe he did what he did. He swam through his own large, lavish city and replayed what happened all those days ago in his head multiple times. He sat in his house, on his bed, in his library, ate in restaurants, replaying the encounter. _At least I played it cool_ , he keeps thinking. _At least I played it cool_.

Surely, the fact that he pickpocketed the merman threw him off? He wouldn’t be able to live down his reputation being tarnished by a poor, slimy “common” merman. Lusting after a “common” merman, indeed. Even just thinking about it embarrassed Mako. But in reality, that stunt he pulled, planned at the last minute, made him fall in love with the skinny merman even more. His wide, amber eyes glistening even with the lack of sunlight, the smoothness of his hair, his cheerful voice…

 _Oh my god, I’ve fallen hard,_ Mako comes to the realization abruptly as he’s lying in bed consumed by the darkness of the night. He can’t sleep, so he lies on his stomach, arms under his pillow, staring into the blackness. The sunken ship-turned-house creaks around him peacefully as waves rock it back and forth, making it seem like the house was snoring away, which grinded on Mako’s nerves. He couldn’t take it anymore. He threw his blanket off of him, swam down to his library and clicked his pufferfish light on. It threw down a soft yellow light, dimly illuminating the room. On the table next to his little reading nook with pillows, a small chest sat by itself. He picked it up, opened it, and took out his only proof that the whole bizarre event ever happened. It still had its polished gleam and Mako wondered if the merman was the one who polished it…

It was a plain silver band, thick and kind of heavy for a ring, with some scratch marks and other signs of age. Despite the damage, it practically looked brand new. It was much too small for Mako himself, and he was sure it wasn’t even valuable to anyone but the “common” mermaids. Someone could probably melt it and form it for something else, he thought dully, before placing the ring back into the chest and setting it down. Sighing, he sat down on the pillows and decided to read himself to sleep, since his thoughts weren’t going to shut up anytime soon. He’d regret staying up so late in the morning, but… oh well.

An idea popped into his head, and he opened the chest again to take a look at the ring. It twinkled playfully at him and he smiled. Even if it wasn’t practically useful to him, he’d keep it just to remember the cute little merman. To remember Jamie.

* * *

 

In the morning, loud repetitive knocks at the door jolted Mako awake from his deep slumber. He still sat in his library with his book in his lap, still open to the page he dozed off on. Cracking his back and massaging his aching neck, he swam up with a grunt and made his way slowly to his room’s door.

 _Where have you been? Home this whole time? Come on, don’t tell me your age is catching up to you,_ his pink-haired enforcer buddy chirped cheerfully once the door was opened. She was only a bit smaller than Mako but her muscles were still pretty much on par with his. She slapped his arm playfully and beckoned him over to their usual hangout, an upscale bar that accommodated to their huge sizes. Mako looked like a zombie, hair floating everywhere, bags under his eyes, mouth slightly open. He stared at his friend for a second before shaking his head and politely declining.

 _Aw, really? You never miss out on hanging with the group, what’s wrong? You look terrible,_ she grumbled deeply and gestured to Mako’s unusually disheveled appearance. He understood that she was concerned, but his sleep deprivation made him cross and impatient.

 _Nothing’s wrong, just go on ahead. I’ll join you in the next one._ He growled, clearly annoyed. She got the hint and gave him a worried look before turning and swimming off.

Relieved, he shut the door and swam back down to the library, making sure the ring was indeed still in the chest before putting his book away and sitting back down on the pillows. He had no idea what to do. Well, he knew he still had a chance to catch back up on his sleep, but… what was he to do about the whole Jamie thing? He couldn’t leave it be, not when he knew he would have to return back to that city and quite possibly bump into him. That would be awkward, especially around his enforcer friends who could read him like a book.

He decided at last that the less he saw of that fish, the better it would be for both of them in the long run. Jamie and him couldn’t possibly be together, not really. They were two total different classes, two different people. Mako’s peers would constantly taunt them both, possibly even driving Jamie away, and he couldn’t even _think_ of downgrading his lifestyle just to be with a poor merman who he wasn’t even 100% sure he loved. He shook the idea out of his head with a laugh and clicked off his library’s light, making his way back to his bed to snooze the rest of the day away. After all, he deserved it.

* * *

 

Jamie packed some provisions in his tiny abode and got ready to leave the house for at least a couple of days. He decided that since it had been a little while since he saw Mako or any mershark for that matter, the waters were safe for now. It was an opportune time to go back to the usual routine of scavenging for junk again. The last encounter left him chuckling, incredulous that he even thought that Mako, the head of the enforcers, would actually _like_ him. Lesson learned, he assured himself before poking his head out and checking the waters as usual. Confident that the premises were clear of dangers, he swam out and made his way south of the city, far away and down the side of the giant mountain ridge on the floor of the ocean. He passed by the hydrothermal vents that helped him forge lots of tools, and headed farther away, eventually losing sight of even his own house and surrounding himself with dark ocean waters. An occasional fish would flit past him, and if he got close enough to the mountain, he’d catch sight of a sea creature scuttling on its rugged surface. From far away, he heard the lonely singing of some whales and smiled, happy to finally be in the expanse of the ocean, away from society and mersharks. He dived deeper for hours until even his own collapsible lungs strained a bit, then worked on slowly swimming up to the surface to see how much distance he covered.

Once he surfaced, he swiped his hair from his face with a webbed hand and looked around. Nothing but ocean around him wherever the eye could see. Darn. Not a boat in sight. Wait a minute… a faint distant shadow outlined against the clear blue sky caught his attention and he recognized it… yes! It was indeed a fishing boat. A rather big one, probably to withstand tough waves and storms.

Jamie dived down again, letting his torn and dirty tail slap the water loudly, quickly making his way towards the boat. He occasionally resurfaced every now and then to check that he wasn’t veering away from the boat due to his missing arm. Eventually, he got closer and closer to the boat and had to dive down deeper to avoid being seen. He swam up to the hull of the boat, touching the barnacles that clung to it and waiting patiently for fishermen to throw anything overboard. After a few minutes, he got bored and the mischievous idea to try rocking the heavy boat popped into his head, as impossible as it seemed.

Before he could even attempt it, he was suddenly grabbed by a powerful hand and dragged away from the boat deeper into the waters. He screamed and thrashed, trying to get whatever grabbed him to loosen their tight grip. He stopped struggling to see Mako’s scowling face right below him, and a tight fist around his tail. He gulped and stared wide-eyed, as usual, incredulous that the head enforcer yet again seemed to appear out of nowhere. Jamie could’ve sworn he was _miles_ away from his city, and even farther from Mako’s… so how the hell did he get here without him noticing? Was he really that unobservant?

“Hurt! Let go! It hurt!” Jamie squealed, wriggling his tail more after regaining his composure. Mako did so, but grabbed him at the waist instead, though his grip there was considerably gentler.

“A vigilant mermaid told me of your whereabouts… several of your neighbors saw you head towards one of these human boats… _again._ ” Mako hissed menacingly, and Jamie cringed. “Don’t you know what your stupid hobby could risk us?” He resorted to shouting right away, which made Jamie want to curl up and die right then and there.

“They woke me up and told me you were off to do this… _stupid_ pastime of yours, where you so ignorantly reveal yourself to these human murderers and risk not only your life, but ours!” Mako bellowed, rattling all the bones in Jamie’s body. He curled into himself, shoulders raised up to the side of his head, hand automatically finding its way to his stump and rubbing it, head bowed. He felt like pure garbage getting chewed out like because of some tattletale mermaids, but at the same time, he knew what he did was very dangerous.

Mako continued his rant, “So now here I am, deprived of a good fuckin’ nap and having to drag your ass back to the city as if I’m your father,” he snarled, face inches away from Jamie’s, finally resorting to swearing. “So? What do you have to say for yourself?” Mako let go of Jamie’s skinny waist and crossed his arms, looking down sternly at the miserable little merman.

“I… I… sorry. Sorry. Very sorry.” Jamie murmured, on the brink of tears.

“Yeah, sorry for _what?_ ”

“Sorry… for…” Jamie racked his brain, since his English was very rudimentary due to learning it from only the fishermen aboard the boats. “Sorry… what you said!”

Mako sighed and rolled his eyes. “Good enough. You’re _never_ doing this ever again, are you? Look at me. You are never doing this _ever again._ Do you hear me?” He reached down to cup Jamie’s chin in his hand and looked directly into his big, sad eyes, making his heart soften a little. “You know how dangerous humans can be,” he started, his voice considerably softer this time, “and how few merpeople survive encounters with them. I’m yelling at you now because I care about… you know,” Mako gestured awkwardly and Jamie looked up at him. “I care about us. About merpeople in general. It’s why I’m an enforcer.” He finished confidently.

Jamie hissed, shoving Mako’s hand away and sneering. “ _Care?_ Shark don’t care, shark bullies!” He swam up, pointing viciously at his large scar running down his side, just barely missing his fin. “Shark hurt me! Hurt! Bad!”

Mako gently pulled a fuming Jamie down to eye level again. “Calm down. I’m sorry that some of my friends are bullies, but… I try to stop it as much as possible. Sometimes… the power gets to their head and they change.” He looked away for a second, remorsefully, and leveled his gaze back to Jamie’s again.

Jamie studied Mako’s face for a bit to find any hint of insincerity before quickly smiling and opening his mouth as wide as possible. He said cheerfully, and as loud as possible, “Makoshark nice! Makoshark not bully! Friends bully.”

 _Wow, this kid is… weird_ , Mako thought while trying to keep a stony gaze, slightly put off by the merman’s sudden mood changes. It seemed like Jamie completely forgot about what happened a week earlier, or has already forgiven him about it. Jamie also always looked like a fish out of water, mouth gaping, eyes wide. All of it was… really cute. He couldn’t resist lifting a webbed hand up to card it through Jamie’s hair again, which earned him a flinch.

“No! I got nothing now, Makoshark. No steal this time!” Jamie proclaimed triumphantly, shaking his head free of Mako’s hand and puffing his chest out. His dopey grin made Mako laugh as he wiggled his tail cocklily. “But… is nice! I like Makoshark! I got nothing but I like…” Jamie struggled a bit, visibly thinking hard for the words he was looking for before resorting to just grabbing Mako’s hand himself and petting his face with it. “Like this!”

Mako understood. He gave in and graced Jamie with his huge thumb that slowly massaged his cheek, moving down to his neck and back up again, rhythmically. All the while, he told the little merman how disappointed he was in him, chastising him for leaving the city and getting so close to humans. It didn’t fool Jamie, he kept enjoying the petting, only half listening. This went on for a few seconds, Jamie making an odd purring sound with his throat while Mako stroked his face, uncharacteristically enchanted. This merman was 100 times more adorable than he expected him to be, and cursed himself for falling hard.

And falling dumbly.

The realization smacked his brain hard, making him jerk his hand away from the now-nuzzling Jamie who whined. He looked up with wide eyes at Mako who couldn’t even bring himself to face his direction now. Jamie was confused. Did he do something wrong? He opened his mouth to speak, but Mako interrupted him.

“We need to go. This boat is moving now and we can’t stay here forever. Let’s go home. And,” he added, “I won’t be having to catch you like this again.” The last statement was resolute, as if a law that was absolute fact. Jamie pouted but took one look at Mako’s huge muscles and decided it wouldn’t be smart to argue. Besides, it’d be nice to have company on the long trip back.

* * *

 

Jamie huffed and puffed desperately, trying to keep up with Mako’s much faster pace. Having only one arm and a torn tail proved to be more burdensome than originally expected, with Mako swimming steadily several yards ahead. The mershark stopped for the fifth time that hour and sighed impatiently as little Jamie idly swam up to him, arm dangling beneath him as he butted his head against Mako’s gut. Whining, he looked up and smiled as sweetly as he could. He didn’t need to say anything, Mako immediately understood what he was asking for.

Mako looked down at the whiny fish, thoroughly unimpressed, and finally sighed. He grabbed the fish by the arm and hooked it around his neck. “Hold on tight, runt.” He grunted and Jamie immediately clung onto his side as they propelled forward, careful to avoid Mako’s dorsal fin.

Immediately, Jamie was amazed at how fast his bigger cohort could swim, resorting to babbling the entire time. “Mako fast! Mako big and strong! Swim fast!” He cried, and said something in his native language that Mako didn’t understand. Praise, it seemed like. Jamie kept ranting and talking for at least another half hour, until Mako finally couldn’t take it and figured the rest of the trip wasn’t short enough for him to endure.

“Okay. Okay, for a merman who doesn’t speak much English, you sure do talk… a lot. Please, shut up.”

“Oh. sorry.” And then, for a few blissful minutes, silence. But then, Jamie piped up again, this time with less praise and more questions.

“Story true?”

“What?” Mako glanced at him.

“Story! Uhm…” Jamie thought for a while. “Kill human, shark, whale-”

“Oh yeah. Those. They’re true.”

“Teeth?”

“Yes. That’s what the teeth are supposed to be about. Proof.”

Jamie couldn’t touch the teeth like he wanted to, but he still admired them and looked at Mako’s face with adoration, like he was discovering his hero for the first time.

“Teeth nice! Story nice, too. Jamie like Mako… when child!”

Mako cast another glance in his direction and tried to swim carefully around a school of fish heading their way. The cloud of fish broke around them and reformed quickly, their bright colors and beautiful patterns making Jamie coo in delight and distracting both of them for a while.

“Fish nice!” Jamie said, completely forgetting about their earlier conversation. Mako didn’t. Once the school was gone, he tried to steer them back to that topic.

“What do you mean ‘when child’?”

“What? Oh! When Jamie little! Little fish! Stories… at night… hmm. Stories,” he thought for a while, Mako trying to string together his words to make a coherent sentence, “stories fish tell me!”

“Stories other fish told you when you were little? Hmmm… so you’ve known about me even way back then.” Mako mused, wondering how old this merman even was. He asked.

“Oh… uhm, not big. Not very big. Only… twe...ntyyy?” Jamie hesitated on the last part, wondering if that was even the correct word. He hadn’t learned how to count past 15 in English and sometimes it got a bit frustrating. But Mako didn’t have to know that. He wasn’t that far off from his actual age, anyways.

“I see. I think I’m going to have to teach you a bit of this language if we’re going to hold a decent conversation.” Mako mumbled and sighed with relief as he saw the hydrothermal vents up ahead, which meant they were indeed getting closer, as the school of fish from before confirmed. Jamie saw the vents and clicked cheerfully, pointing at it before quickly grabbing onto Mako again and grinning nervously.

“Ah! Sorry. Exciiiited! Home again!”

“Oh, excited to be home _now,_ I see.” Mako gave him a glare.

“No! Excited because… Makoshark come to house!” Jamie trilled. That surprised Mako as he made his way past the vents and swam faster, hoping to catch sight of Jamie’s dingy little home. “Makoshark see!” That made him a little more nervous. See what?

Once they were close enough to the coral, Jamie let go of Mako and broke off to swim into the top of his abode and duck inside, his long tail swishing through the water playfully. After a few seconds, he rose back up and pulled out a little figurine, presenting it to Mako with a big grin.

“Ta daaaa!” He sang, wiggling the plastic figurine in Mako’s face. The mershark took it, and held it gingerly, inspecting it carefully with a visibly confused expression. It looked positively tiny in his huge hand. It was a ridiculous toy, a plastic statue of a blue shark with buff human arms and legs, mouth wide open to reveal a row of teeth and beady eyes staring blankly. It seemed to be flexing… or standing menacingly. Either way, it looked extremely silly. Mako looked from the toy to Jamie and back to the toy again.

“What…” He started, but Jamie didn’t let him finish.

“For you!!! Ta daaa! Strong shark like you!” Jamie wiggled his tail and kept grinning, looking up expectantly at Mako for some sort of praise.

“Uhm. Thanks?”

Jamie’s face fell. “Makoshark… no like? It remember me of you!” He smiled again, but weakly this time.

“No, I… I like it. It’s… funny.” Mako cleared his throat. “When did you get this?”

“Day after! After… last time! Jamie think you coming, but…” Jamie shrugged, “I save it!” He beamed proudly, as if keeping a plastic kid’s toy of a shark with arms and legs was an admirable feat. _So he_ did _remember._ Mako smiled warmly, touched a bit at the fact that even after the nasty encounter they had, Jamie would be so kind as to actively search for and save an item that reminded him of the enforcer. And despite the fact that Mako did have actual friends, none of them bothered with little gifts, even though Mako treats them considerably better than he does most people. He turned the figurine around in his hand, admiring it with new eyes, and looks at Jamie.

“Yeah, I like it. Thanks.” He puts a hand on Jamie’s shoulder and the merman immediately goes to nuzzle it, making Mako’s heart burst. “O-okay, I gotta go. I’m an enforcer, after all, I have a job to do besides babysitting runts like you,” he says quickly, trying to save face. It wasn’t true at all, today happened to be his day off but Jamie didn’t have to know that.

“Okay! Makoshark come visit after!” Jamie chirps cheerfully, dancing away and waving enthusiastically before diving back into his house.

“Don’t think this will make me forget what you did today…” Mako grumbled, hopefully loud enough that the merman could hear.

He turned and started swimming back up to his city, clutching the toy to his chest.


	4. Phantom Pains

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Short and sweet, this chapter is. Sorry I didn't update on Saturday, I'm all out of wack thanks to winter vacation. Hope you enjoy!

A few weeks passed since their last meeting and both of them were getting along  _ swimmingly.  _ Mako still wasn’t sure whether Jamie liked him the way he liked him, but he was glad to have made a new friend anyways. Their usual routine now consisted of Mako coming up with some excuse as to why he couldn’t have lunch with his fellow enforcers during break at least once a week, and heading off to Jamie’s house to spend the time with him instead. Some days, Jamie was extra affectionate, giving the mershark some hope. They bonded over telling stories and quickly became good friends. Then, other days, Jamie didn’t even want to leave his abode, opting to talk to Mako through one of the openings and seeming very much not like his cheerful self. It was strange, the merman seemed extra protective of his amputated limb on those days, not even wanting Mako to see it. When the mershark asked one time, Jamie simply said it was because his arm hurt. “Hurt bad,” for whatever reason. 

Unfortunately, this was one of those days. 

Mako ditched his friends during his break again to swim to Jamie’s house as fast as he possibly could. Break seemed shorter and shorter each and every day, and Mako didn’t want to be late to scouting duty this day, where all the enforcers do perimeter checks around the kingdom and report back to the royal family. It was mostly a great opportunity to check up on the humans’ activities in the waters. Mako most definitely didn’t want to miss  _ that. _

He eventually made it to Jamie’s lone coral cave and poked his head inside, the only thing he could do since his large size would never allow him to squeeze past the tight entrances. He saw Jamie curled up right in the middle, head tucked in his arm, lying on his stump and whimpering pitifully. 

_ Oh, this again,  _ Mako thought dully, and rapped his knuckles on the wall next to him. Jamie jumped, sitting up and looking blearily around for the source of the noise. Once he found it, he nosed his way slowly over to Mako and layed down again, clutching his right arm and whining.

“What is it? Has the pain gotten worse? I thought you lost that arm years ago.” Mako was genuinely worried this time. All the other times, Jamie could bear the pain enough to just lie down and murmur some words before falling asleep. This time, he seemed genuinely distressed, especially if he was swimming his way closer to Mako. 

“Ah… uhmm… pain… ngh, pain… different…” Jamie sniffled, trying to vocalize his need without straining his brain too much. “Pain… hot… burns! Burns bad!” 

Mako didn’t understand. “Where, at the end there? Where you’re touching?”

Jamie shook his head weakly and moaned. “No... “ he mumbled and pointed vaguely to where his fingers would be if they were still there. “Not there, but… real! Hurt!”

Mako scratched his chin for a second, trying to figure out if the fish was going crazy, or if it was real. Either way, the little merman did indeed lose an arm, and looked so badly beaten up that he figured it wouldn’t hurt much to indulge the fish and just give him a quick cuddle. After all, no one was around, most likely out and about in the city. Still, Mako took no chances. 

“Come here, I have an idea,” he beckoned softly, his warm, deep voice tempting Jamie and leading him slowly outside, into his arms. Jamie watched Mako with wide eyes, muscles tensing in case the larger merman gave even the slightest hint of harming him. Mako slowly carried Jamie around the back of the house, facing away from all the other neighboring abodes and settling snugly down into the sand. He held Jamie gently, pressing his left side against his belly to have easy access to his right arm, reaching up to softly massage it. 

Jamie flinched, not sure what his intentions were and groaned before looking up at Mako with a questioning look.

Mako chuckled reassuringly, “Don’t worry, I’m not going to hurt you.”

Reluctantly, Jamie relaxed a bit, settling more comfortably against his bulk and leaning into his arm. The mershark continued massaging the amputated limb, focusing entirely at the task at hand and leaving Jamie to let his eyes explore freely once more without the awkwardness. 

They sat there for quite a while, Mako kneading the muscles in Jamie’s arm and Jamie cradled in his arms, looking up at him like a curious child. Minutes passed, nothing but the sound of the ocean in their ears and an occasional whale song from far away. Jamie was indeed feeling a lot better. It seemed when Mako rubbed away at his arm, the phantom pains seemed less real and the searing torment went away much quicker. It was… nice. A huge, powerful, mean-looking mershark was gently cradling  _ him,  _ and helping  _ him _ , a poor and ugly merman with nothing to his name but some human junk. The thought made Jamie purr a bit and snuggle up to Mako. 

In fact, the whole thing seemed pretty bizarre from the start. Jamie had his suspicions, but opened himself up to the enforcer and got rewarded for it nonetheless. He  _ loved  _ Mako with his whole heart but still would never let his guard down in case it all turned out to be a ruse, a sick joke or something. Which is exactly why he would never admit to having fallen in love with him. Well... not yet. Besides, what if Mako didn’t love him back? Surely Jamie’s feelings weren’t reciprocated. No one could possibly love a raggedy, slimy fish like him. Especially a rich and esteemed member of society. It was a miracle, it seemed, that Mako even  _ went _ out of his way to spend time with him.

Still, Jamie was more than happy that he made a friend who cared for him, even just a little. The chain of events that occurred so far pleased him greatly, since everything he did was driven only by pure hope. Maybe if he smiled and joked and learned better English, Mako would like him even more? He had a plan in the back of his head to bring them closer together, but never brought it up because… well…  _ maybe it wasn’t such a bad idea after all,  _ Jamie mused as he let his eyes take in the rugged handsomeness of Mako’s face. Again, hope gave him courage.

“Uhm… Makoshark?” Jamie smiled meekly and shrugged his hand off of his arm.

“Feel better?” Mako rumbled quietly, looking down at Jamie with an expression of both concern and adoration. He caught himself and cleared his throat, looking away and then glancing back with a tougher expression. 

“I… you know English… good! I… not know. Please…” Jamie paused for a bit, leaning his head on Mako’s chest before continuing, “teach?”

The mershark vaguely remembered mentioning something about teaching this little fish some more English, but couldn’t quite put a fin on it. Still, Jamie looked up at him with such an adorable face, he couldn’t resist, whether it was mentioned before or not. The idea of bringing Jamie into his home and finally getting to show him around excited Mako, he definitely liked the idea, but…

Mako thought about it for a bit, taking a second to make sure Jamie was indeed feeling better and that the pain was gone. Then, after carefully going over a quickly-thought-out plan in his brain again, he decided it was best to warn the merman about potential risks that his plan could bring.

“Alright,” Jamie lit up, but before he could say anything, Mako continued firmly, “ _ but.  _ But… there are some things to consider. I have plenty of books in my library that will do the trick. However… fish like you… y’know… you’re not allowed in the city without a special pass and a good reason.”

Jamie slumped over, defeated. Of course, special passes would cost lots of money, yet another thing he didn’t have. He didn’t know whether to be mad at himself, at his situation, or the structure of the merpeople society in general. It was stupid to bring up the idea in the first place after all. 

“Nevermind… Makoshark not have to-” Jamie started ruefully, but was cut off.

“Listen… I’m sure that if I tell the city guards that you’re an old family friend or something, they’ll let you in. After all, I  _ am _ the head of the enforcers there.” Mako spoke confidently, but it didn’t help Jamie feel any better. “Or maybe we can come up with a different plan. I’ll figure something out for the both of us. Worst case scenario, I’ll have to bring the books here myself. But it’ll work. I promise.”

“Oh… okay.” The merman’s mood had been dampened nonetheless.

Mako suddenly sat upright, making Jamie roll off of his lap and float away unhappily. 

“Oh, carp,” he hissed under his breath, “my break must have ended minutes ago! I’m sorry, Jamie… I have to go. Duty calls.” Mako gently took Jamie’s amputated arm in one giant hand, giving it one last reassuring squeeze before heading the other direction. “Let me know when you start feeling that pain again, alright?”

Jamie had no idea how he could possibly even do that, since he didn’t have any way to communicate with anyone unless face-to-face, but he called out a farewell anyways and swam back inside of his abode. Once inside, he sat in the middle as usual and rubbed at his limb absentmindedly. He felt much better, indeed, but the reminder of his poverty and contempt for his disadvantage in life left a bitter taste in his mouth. At least he got to see Mako today. 


	5. The Ship

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys, sorry about the lack of updates lately. I was staying at a friend's house for the winter break and didn't have stable wifi. But now I'm back in college, with wifi, and I'm gonna try hard to stick to my "update every Saturday" schedule. Hope you enjoy!

It took a few weeks, but both of the mermen came up with a nearly foolproof plan to smuggle Junkfish in and out of the city without any of the city guards noticing. Of course, since Mako was a step above them in the hierarchy, he had access to all guard routes with their specific hours and made his plan accordingly. He made Junkfish remember them in case he had to make an emergency trip to find Mako for any reason. This plan was the winner out of all the other ideas they tried to conjure up, including one that suggested maybe Jamie could disguise himself as a guard himself and wear the heavyset armour that regulations called for. 

It was quickly scrapped, Jamie would  _ never _ be able to pull it off. 

They picked a day to meet and round around the entire perimeter of the city walls together, finding an unguarded spot behind a quiet residential area where not many intrusions happen, since the front entrance of the city was more heavily guarded due to trading posts, visitors, and whatnot. Once Mako found this out, he figured the rocks that made up the walls could easily be wedged apart enough to let Junkfish slip through, covering the hole up by “expanding” the residents’ yard decorations and adding some well-placed seaweed in front of it. 

From there, Mako figured out the fastest route from the hole to his sunken ship-house, discovering it under the guise that he was simply making a quick neighborhood patrol, as ordered by the king himself. It wasn’t farfetched, since everyone knew the head enforcer and the king got along pretty well. So the merpeople shrugged and thanked Mako for working to keep the city safe, then went about their own business. 

When the plan was finished and everything seemed to be in place, they swam back to Jamie’s house and rested a bit before the scrawny merman ducked back into his house and pulled out two dead fish for a meal. He shoved one in his mouth, crunching on the bones, and offered Mako the other. Not wanting to be rude, he took it and looked down at it, the fish looking absolutely tiny in the palm of his webbed hand. 

“Uhm, thank you. Is this… is this all you have to eat?” Mako said, narrowing his eyes at Jamie.

The merman nodded, mouth full. “Yes! Saved the whoooolllleee time! For you!” Bits of fish spewed out and floated about, forcing Jamie to swallow his food and pluck them from the water to put back into his mouth.

“Did you… just eat the whole thing? Bones and all?” Now Mako was a bit worried. But of course, if Jamie’s protruding ribs and bony arm weren’t telltale signs, what was? Mako had gotten used to Jamie’s malnourished appearance, the merman’s situation hadn’t hit him until now and he felt a bit guilty. 

Jamie nodded, glancing at the battered fish still held in Mako’s claws. “Eat!” he urged, gesturing excitedly to it. Mako looked at the fish once more and shook his head, extending it out towards his friend instead. 

“Sure?” 

“Yes, I’m sure. Take it, I’m not hungry.” Mako offered gently and watched as the skinny merman did just that, greedily stuffing it into his mouth before he gave him a grateful smile. They sat in silence behind the house for a few seconds before Mako spoke up again.

“So… how much  _ do _ you eat if you can only earn enough for two fish a week?” He glanced at Jamie who sat contentedly next to him, and they met each other’s eyes.

“Oh… little. Eat little. Junkfish always hungry!” Jamie laughed as if it was a great joke and looked back to Mako, who didn’t smile back. 

“That’s… concerning. Do you really not eat everyday?” The concept itself was foreign and slightly frightening to him, since there were people who would happily offer Mako free food for the sake of it, but wouldn’t pay a poor starving merman to afford the basics. He knew in his heart of hearts that the structure of this society was deeply flawed due to their monarchical government, but he didn’t know there were citizens literally being left for dead. With a diet as limited as Jamie’s, it’s a wonder he isn’t dead at all.

“No, no eat ev...ryday. No eat. Cold sometimes!” Jamie’s grin grew wider as he mock shivered and rubbed his stomach. Again, acting as if it was all a joke. It was true that if merpeople didn’t eat, they wouldn’t put on any protective fat for the cold temperatures of the water. Their skin was thick, built to help with the heat insulation, but skin could only do so much. A body like Jamie’s couldn’t survive at all if temperatures dipped below 28 degrees Fahrenheit (-1 degrees Celsius) at any given time. That concerned Mako even more. 

The mershark rubbed his scaly chin and thought about all of the wasted food he saw at parties, restaurants, even in his own home. He made up his mind. “That’s not healthy, Jamie. I’ll bring you whatever I can whenever I visit. You may be poor, but you deserve to eat.” 

Jamie looked up at him with wide eyes and immediately resorted to the common custom of refusing such kindness. “No! No! Makoshark too nice, no need!” He waved his hands and shook his head quickly, adding “Eat enough! Junkfish eat enough!”

“No, you don’t,” Mako brushed a huge thumb over some of Jamie’s ribs, making the merman shiver for real. “You’re clearly starved. There’s a lot of food up in the big city, enough for you and me. I won’t throw anything away, I’ll give it to you. And if you don’t like it, you can bag it up and give it to someone else, pass it forward.” Their eyes met again and Jamie smiled sheepishly. “Deal?”

“Oh. Yes. Thank you, Makoshark!” the merman shouted with glee and threw his arm around Mako’s large waist. “Help me… a lot. Thank you…” he mumbled.

Mako simply smiled and stroked his head, enjoying the hug. They had their arms encircled around each other for too long, because then a loud, slamming door jolted both of them off of each other. A nearby neighbor had just gotten back home, hauling their buy from the market and completely missing the two mermen hidden nicely away from the world. Once both of them made sure the coast was clear, they turned towards each other, clearly flustered.

“I supposed I should be heading back and returning to my duties. I think… my fellow enforcers are worried about me.” Mako rumbled quietly, clearing his throat. “Tomorrow after my shift, I’ll come by to take you to my house. Remember the plan.”

Jamie’s face was flushed with red, giggling nervously. “Ah. Yes! Goodbye Makoshark!”

Mako turned around to swim back up the cliff towards his city again and looked back for a brief second to see Jamie still floating outside. He waved at the merman and got a cheerful wave back, the image of Jamie’s smile warming him up as he made his way home.

* * *

 

“Are you ready?” Mako peered into one of the holes of the abode and knocked on the coral. Jamie’s golden eyes rushed forward from the darkness and their foreheads bumped together. Jamie giggled as Mako rubbed his head and groaned, pulling him from his home. “Yeah, you are. Let’s go. And stay as quiet as you can when we get there.”

Jamie clung onto Mako’s neck like the day that the mershark had to fetch him from the boat and off they went, glancing around for any witnesses and taking their newly found out-of-the-way route to the hole at the back of the city. Jamie enjoyed being so close to Mako as he swam, he got to admire the mershark’s bulging muscles and feel the power of his tail as it easily propelled both of them through the water. Yet another thing to admire about him.

They quickly made their way up the cliff and managed to avoid passing guards, swimming to the cleverly-hidden hole they created. 

“Alright,” Mako said once they reached the fissure and he pulled the seaweed to the side, “you’re going to go through this hole. Remember the guard routes?” He continued when Jamie nodded, “Good. Here’s the map I created, follow this with the route times in mind. Right now, you should be fine in regards to this part of the city. Guards don’t keep watch around here often. But be alert anyways, and head straight to my house in case of  _ any  _ danger whatsoever. That’s where I’ll meet you. Go.” He gave the merman a gentle push after handing him a piece of parchment and pulled the seaweed back in its place. Jamie folded it, shoved it into his pouch, and looked back once more, flashing Mako a nervous smile before quickly swimming off. 

Once he was sure he heard Jamie swim far away enough, he shot off towards the front gates of the city and nodded at the guards for permission to enter. He didn’t need to present passes or any form of identification at this point, everyone knew him so well. Even so, all anyone had to do was glance down at the gold band wrapped around the thinnest part of his shark tail and know his status wasn’t anything to be reckoned with. Gold bands were gifted by the royal family to anyone who deserved it, whether it be because of heroics, selflessness, or just in favor of their riches. In Mako’s case, it was pretty much all three of those reasons, and gave Mako more power than he was willing to admit. 

Mako passed through the gates with ease and waved hello at all the adoring merpeople who stopped to try and chat with him. It didn’t work, Mako insisted he was too busy and waved them off, heading home as fast as he could. He was extremely nervous, worrying about Jamie’s capabilities of reaching his home safely. Once he saw the giant wooden ship loom into view, nestled up on a hill and surrounded with random fish flitting to and fro between rotting masts and torn sails, he let out a sigh of relief. 

He loved the giant 16th century galleon ship, it fit all of his requirements for a perfect house, on top of the location where it was situated. From the left side of his home, he could look out of nearly any hole and catch a beautiful sight of his city, with towering coral apartments and restructured caves nestling in between them. They were closer to the surface and got a lot more sun than the lowly “common” mermaid’s city below them. On the west side of the city, to the right of Mako’s ship-house, the royal castle seemed to sparkle and gleam under the scattered rays of the sun. Its tall twisting spires and tall arches seemed welcoming, but anyone knew that getting near the castle without express permission from anyone of the royal family would warrant a penalty of jail… or even death. Even from where Mako was, he could see the heavily-armoured guards swimming around the outside of the castle, dark and blurry specks moving gracefully through the water, making sure no harm ever got past them. 

Mako himself made some rounds around his house, but not for protection. He eventually settled on the bowsprit of his house and kept a lookout for a dirty orange tail anywhere nearby. Minutes passed and he got more and more nervous as time went on, even though he knew the hole they made wasn’t near Mako’s house at all. 

Eventually, Mako got impatient enough that he hopped off of the bowsprit and made his way around his ship, ducking in and pulling out a union anchor that was lying half-buried in the sand behind it. He hefted it up, holding it by the shank, apprehensively moving forward to the stern to peek around it once he heard someone swimming close by. A tail darted behind the stern before Mako could catch what it looked like, and he swam around, holding the anchor tightly in his hand in case he had to give a fatal blow. When he finally got around to the other side, he saw Jamie frantically darting about, trying to figure out where the entrance was. Mako laughed, making him jump and whirl around. 

“Makoshark!!” Jamie cried happily, and Mako hushed him, pointing to the top of the ship and motioning him to follow. 

Once they got to the main deck, Mako threw down the anchor, hoping the old wood wouldn’t eventually give way to the heaviness of it. He motioned for the merman to follow him to the captain's cabin, where Mako’s room was. It was a pretty small space for a giant mershark like Mako, much to Jamie’s surprise. But it sure was extravagant compared to Jamie’s simple coral hovel in the outskirts of the city. A plush bed surrounded by thick curtains draping from a hook on the ceiling sat on the right, away from all the large square-paned windows that showed yet another impressive view of the city and took up much of the wall to the left. A long table squatted underneath the windows littered with stacks of papers weighted down by heavy books, an underwater lamp, and some neat-looking shells. Under the short table was a large emerald chest with gold trimmings. The entire room was sparsely furnished, but well put together, the dark wine-colored sheets and curtains matching well with the dark wood of the room, giving the place an antiquated ornate feel. Needless to say, Jamie was impressed. 

But they didn’t come here to hang out in Mako’s room. The mershark swam ahead, bending down to lift a hatch that led below and disappeared into it. Hesitantly, Jamie followed. 

The room was completely pitch black before Mako turned on a light that hung from the low ceiling. The light source was a yellow bulb inside of a dead pufferfish, blown out and round, its spines filed down to dull ones so that it wouldn’t hurt anyone using it. The library also wasn’t much, but in the back of the room, a pile of comfy pillows and some cloth were wedged into a round nook with a small table next to it that looked more like a stool than anything. The entire room’s walls were basically just shelves filled to the brim with books of all sizes from floor to ceiling. Some rolls of parchment were tucked away in various places between the books, some other small tables holding bundles of them in corners. Jamie figured some of those parchments would be maps, considering how well-traveled Mako is. 

The ship was nice and all with its comfortably creaking wood interior, but Jamie wondered why Mako, a rich mershark, wouldn’t take advantage of his wealth at all. With the kind of money someone as renowned as he was would have, Jamie expected gold and satin to be floating everywhere. Mako sure did live humbly. He didn’t ask, though. That would be rude. 

“Would you like to eat first before we start with the tutoring?” Mako said as he led Jamie to the pile of pillows in the back. “I’m assuming you didn’t eat at all today.”

Jamie nodded vigorously, mouth watering at the thought of finally having food in his stomach again. Mako chuckled and told the merman to stay put while he headed to the crew’s quarters down the ship. Once Mako swam out, Jamie settled down snugly into the pillows and pulled up a cloth to rub on his face. It was pretty soft, and he wrapped it around his skinny shoulders, getting as comfortable as possible. 

The trip to Mako’s home was certainly worth it, as he was almost about to be caught by a guard on the way there. If it weren’t for Jamie’s quick thinking and good knowledge of hiding spaces, he wouldn’t be here in the cozy library of the head of the city’s enforcers. It was all pretty surreal, but all of this was bound to be a reality sooner or later. It’s crazy to think it was a little more than a month ago that he and Mako were strangers to each other, only having heard stories about each other from others. Now, they were pretty good friends. Jamie couldn’t be more pleased. 

He patiently waited for several minutes, but before he knew it, all the swimming, hiding, and his lack of nutrition caught up to him. He was sinking deeper into the pillows, the adrenaline from the excitement and fear of being in a city he wasn’t supposed to be in wore off, leaving him exhausted. He was aware that he was slowly falling asleep and used his last minutes of consciousness to convince himself that falling asleep in another person’s house without permission would be very rude indeed. But the pillows were so soft… the waters around him still and quiet… and Mako was taking a very… long… time…

* * *

 

Mako finally came back into the library, balancing a crate full of different types of fishes to eat such as tangs, crabs, clownfishes, sea bass, even clams. He set it down in the middle of the library and prepared an apology for taking so long, but when he looked over to where Jamie was, all he saw was a big orange tail laying completely still, poking out from underneath a pile of pillows. A bit alarmed, Mako quietly swam over and removed some pillows, eventually revealing Jamie’s sleeping visage. He was peacefully snoozing away, his hand still clutching the cloth he was holding earlier, blowing small bubbles with each exhale. Mako couldn’t even be angry, the merman looked pretty cute when he wasn’t twitching and talking as loud as he possibly could. In fact, Mako decided he’d much rather prefer a sleeping Jamie than a talkative one. Still... he couldn’t just leave him here to sleep. He deserved a proper bed.

As painstakingly as possible, Mako lifted the slimy fish in his arms and carried him up to his room, where he gently laid him down onto the dark sheets of his bed. After admiring the sleeping merman once more, Mako quietly shut the curtains around him and went back down to retrieve the fishing crate full of food, click off the light, and close the hatch behind him. He set the crate down onto the floor next to the bed and left the room, silently closing the door behind him. Hopefully Jamie wouldn’t mind that he was carried to bed, though Mako doubted that something like that would anger a cheerful fish like Jamie. He smiled as he swam to the city, glad that his friend was nice and safe. At least for now. 


	6. Sleepover

When Mako got back home from running some small errands and stopping to talk to his friends, he opened the door to the captain’s cabin to find Jamie audibly struggling to get through the curtains, his hands clawing at the cloth desperately. 

Jamie heard the door open and his struggling became more frantic. “Mako!” He howled, balling up the curtains in his fists in a last-ditch attempt to rip them down from the ceiling. “Dark! Can’t see!  _ Makooooo!!” _

Mako simply laughed as he gently pushed the merman back and opened them, temporarily blinding Jamie with the sudden flood of lights. But once he blinked a few times and regained his composure, a wide grin spread onto his face and he swam into Mako’s arms gleefully. 

“Mako,” Jamie started to babble, “scared! Dark! Woken up and… a-and, dark!! Not know where I was! T-too dark, scared, scared, scared!”  
“Alright, alright, calm down. I saw you asleep in the library and thought it would be a nice _gesture_ to lay you down onto a proper bed. Apparently… that wasn’t such a good idea.” Mako gently patted Jamie’s back and chuckled when he got a squeeze back. “Now that you’re awake, you can eat and we can continue our lesson.” At that, Jamie lit up, sitting back on the bed and waggling his tail in anticipation. He spotted the crate set next to the bed hours earlier and pointed at it excitedly. 

“For _me?!”_ He said, back to his loud and cheerful self. 

“Yes, eat as much as you can and take the rest home…” Mako trailed off as he turned around and saw the darkening waters through the windows. The sun was setting slowly outside. “Ah... you good to go home alone later tonight?”

Jamie didn’t answer, he was too busy ripping the crate open and stuffing the contents into his mouth as quickly as he could. He  _ never  _ saw this much food in one place besides the market, and as he crunched on the bones and threw the heads away, he wondered how rich Mako really was to get such a luxury of having crates full of such a variety of foods. Mako simply watched him curiously as he savagely tore into the food, bits and pieces floating into the water around them. Jamie noticed eyes on him and looked up meekly, smiling as best as he could with a mouthful of fish.

“Well?” Mako sat down next to him and swatted the mess away from him.

“Mmmmph?” Jamie mumbled before swallowing hard and coughing.

“My question earlier. Are you alright with going home by yourself in the dark? It’s a bit of a long way and guards are already doing their rounds around the city wa-”

Jamie cut Mako off. “Stay! With you!! Jamie stay with Mako! Sleep here… uhm… Mako let me?” The merman smiled shyly and rubbed his stump again, another habit Mako noticed.

“Of course. Not sure where to put you, really, but I’m sure we’ll figure it out. You seemed to take a liking to the library.” Jamie was sinking his teeth into the large sea bass when he looked up at the suggestion. It didn’t seem to strike his fancy because he squinted and shook his head. “No?” Mako was surprised. He let Jamie finish chewing his food and waited for an answer.

“No, bed comfy! Darkness… scary… but sleep with Mako nice!” Jamie grinned, not understanding why Mako looked absolutely taken aback at the suggestion. He got just as startled as Mako, taking the reaction as a negative thing, and immediately rushed to take it back. “U-uhm, I mean, Mako no have to… bed no… a-ahm! No bed! No bed!”

Mako got over his initial shock of Jamie’s straightforwardness and cleared his throat, running a hand through his silver hair. “Well… might be a tight fit on the bed, but if that’s what you’re most comfortable-”

“Yes! No! I mean… no! No have to!”

“It’s fine, I don’t mind.”

Jamie’s face and neck flushed a bright pink and he gently took one of Mako’s massive hands in both of his smaller ones, pressing it to his cheek in a gesture of gratitude. It was amusing, and something Mako wasn’t used to at all. Maybe Jamie didn’t really love him. Maybe both of their cultures were so different, despite them living in neighboring cities, that he was taking all of this the wrong way. Somehow, that thought was a bit more reassuring than thinking that Jamie  _ was _ in love with him, and he didn’t know why. He pushed the train of thought to the back of his head and handed Jamie the sea bass he dropped.

“Alright, eat. I’ll go get the books and we’ll start with the lessons.”

* * *

 

“You know,” Mako sighed and rubbed at his arms after completing a challenging exercise in participles and nouns, “I was hoping to get you in here so I can show you around. And since you’re staying for the night, a tour seems like a good idea.”

“Tour?” Jamie slurred the word a bit, whispering it to himself a bunch afterwards to get the pronunciation down right. The word felt funny in his mouth. 

“Yeah, a tour. Just… what you do when you’re in a new place. You take a look around and figure where things are.” Mako got up and stretched a bit before holding a hand out to Jamie. “I’ll show you where the food storage and the whirlpool bath are.”

Jamie’s eyes went wide as he took Mako’s hand. Food? Bath? It sounded like he just got a one-way ticket to heaven!

They swam out of the room and ducked back into another door on the other side of the main deck, Mako leading Jamie through narrow rooms and openings that were made by either Mako himself or some of the crustaceans that inhabited the shipwreck. The whirlpool was at the very bottom of the ship, a giant wooden tub partly built into the sand of the ocean floor with powerful water jets to give a vigorous clean. It’s what all merpeople use to “bathe”, to get stubborn barnacles and slimy ocean residue off of their scales, but unfortunately most of the people who owned these baths or had access to them were also ones with money. Mako urged Jamie to hop in and try it out, which the little merman happily obliged. 

“Ahhhhhh…” Jamie purred as the jets of water massaged him all over, “first time… years…  _ first time in years!”  _ He giggled happily and danced a bit, turning so that the jets could rinse away years of muck and slime off every inch of his body. He sank into the tub, fully submerging himself and letting the water nearly drown out all of his senses. It felt amazing, and he was more than reluctant to get out when Mako called for him.

“I’m turning it off, Jamie. Come on. You need the see the rest of the ship and head to bed.” Mako warned patiently, laughing when Jamie stuck his tongue out at him.

Eventually, Jamie did leave the tub, giving it longing glances as they left the room and toured the rest of the ship. But he was more than elated at finally feeling clean, stopping every once in a while to admire his shiny orange scales and run a clean hand through his soft hair.

Eventually, Jamie found out that surprisingly, the large ship wasn’t very lived-in. Mako seemed to mainly hole himself up in his room and his library, leaving the rest of the ship for storage, octopi, and seaweed. In fact, they did catch an octopus prying open a crate in the crew-barracks-turned-food-storage-room, and Mako batted away at it until it swam off grumpily. 

“This is… of course, the uhm,” Mako caught another octopus sneaking in out of the corner of his eye, “the  _ food storage _ . You know you can come here anytime and… goddamn it.” He turned and snatched another crate out of the greedy tentacles of the octopus, making Jamie giggle. It was amusing to see a common octopus battle it out with a giant mershark for some fish. He took Mako’s temporary distraction as an opportunity to look around in wonder at the dozens and dozens of crates in different sizes lining up on what used to be bunk beds for human sailors. So much food, how much did Mako really need? No wonder he was so big. 

“Alright, anyways,” Mako growled as he shoved the thieving octopus away, “like I was saying. You can come down here anytime, there’s plenty of food. Anything you'd like to take before bed?”

Jamie shook his head and laughed as he saw a tentacle poke out from under a bunk bed and feel around for a crate. 

“Good. You go up to bed now while I take care of these… annoying  _ visitors.  _ I’ll be right up with you.”

Jamie turned to go and stopped when Mako called for him again. “Jamie? I left the books on the bed, take them down to the library if you can, please.  _ Oh, you stupid-” _

The merman laughed as he swam out, leaving sounds of crates falling and Mako cursing loudly behind him. 

He eventually found his way out of numerous rooms and openings up to the main deck. He reached the captain’s cabin and opened the door, slowly shutting it behind him. The books they used for today were indeed still piled up on the bed, along with the crate that used to be filled with fish. Jamie took both the books and the crate carefully in his arms and set them down on a table in the library below. He took the opportunity of being in the library alone again to look at the various maps bundled up on top of the small tables that sat unorganized in the room. He unrolled one and after some figuring in his head, he found out it was a map of the Atlantic Ocean, with red marks drawn on detailing a complicated route across it labeled in neat handwriting. Something big was printed on the top of the map, every X and circled location paired with a sentence or two. Jamie couldn’t read at all, not even his own native language, but thanks to Mako’s lesson earlier he could pick up a word or two here and there.  _ Going to  _ something something something,  _ quickly  _ something something…  _ city  _ something… 

But why would Mako write in English? Why didn’t he write in his own language? Did he want no one to read and find out about his plans? That didn't really make any sense considering there’d be no consequences at all to his voyages. Maybe he was trying to hide valuables he found or something. Jamie’s curiosity grew as he picked up yet another parchment and unrolled it, finding it wasn’t a map, but a diagram of a ship unlike the one they were in now.

More parchments unrolled; a diagram of the human anatomy, some lengthy paragraphs with pictures of different kinds of crustaceans, another parchment but only with writing, and then one with a detailed picture of some kind of city that looked a lot like this city. Jamie scratched his head and regretted not having Mako teach him to read English. He noticed that every parchment had slightly different handwriting, so maybe Mako didn’t write any of this. So then why would he have all of this? Did he steal these from the humans? Not many merpeople knew English, the common language of the humans (That’s what they were told, anyways. A lot of sailors spoke English), so it was strange that Mako had these many parchments in their language. Maybe Mako really  _ did _ steal from humans. 

If that was true, then his warnings of going near ships was pretty hypocritical. Jamie exhaled and propped his elbows on the table, staring once more at the map of the Atlantic Ocean. He  _ really _ wished he knew how to read.

It was only when he heard the door above him open that he scrambled to roll and bundle up the parchments. He poked his head out of the hatch that led to the room and grinned at Mako, who was visibly exhausted. 

“Uhm, hi Makoshark!” Jamie practically had a halo glowing on his head.

“What were you doing down there?”

“N-nothing! Put books down! Away!”

Mako narrowed his eyes at the merman as he meekly swam into the room and gently closed the hatch behind him, swimming up to him and taking his hand once more. 

“Sleep now! Good night!”

“Hmmm…” Mako smoothed his hair with one swipe, clicked off the underwater lamp on the table, and followed Jamie into bed. The bed was big, but it wasn’t big enough for a giant mershark and another merman. Jamie giggled as he cuddled up close to Mako, practically squished against the wall behind him thanks to Mako’s large belly. It was a bit awkward for both of them until Jamie wrapped an arm around the mershark’s side and snuggled his face into his chest. That earned him a grunt. After a while, Mako finally laid his hand on the merman’s skinny waist, pulling him in a bit closer. This was… nice, and intimate. Too intimate for Mako’s liking with anyone else, but with Jamie everything felt  _ just right. _

Meanwhile, Jamie ran what he saw in the library through his brain as he settled more comfortably and closed his eyes. If all of those things were really drawn and written by humans, he wanted to know exactly when and where Mako got them. Jamie was always excited to learn more about humans, they were pretty interesting to watch. And he learned  _ so much _ English just by listening and talking to them, if he could get his hands on some books and learn how to read, he was sure he could unlock a world of knowledge. After all, creatures who could build something as big and sturdy as the ships he saw-- as the ship he was in-- were sure to know way more about the world than any merperson did. Right?

Mako eventually fell asleep with his arms wrapped around Jamie, holding him close with the sound of his breathing in his ears. Jamie stayed awake for hours after, finally drifting off to sleep just as the sun was rising. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ayyyeee, finally a chapter posted on time! That took a while  
> I was originally planning on this being like 10 chapters but then I just had to bring some shit in at the end... and... yeah this is probably going to be way longer than I anticipated. Hope y'all enjoyed!


	7. Caught

It was around noon when Jamie finally opened his eyes, rubbing them and staring blearily at the sunlight filtering through the curtains that hung all around him. It was still perfectly dark, and he was just about to roll over and go back to sleep when he heard the bedroom door open noisily. He groaned and snuggled deeper into the pillow.

“Jamie?” A deep voice rumbled, followed by a sudden flooding of bright lights that made Jamie squeeze his eyes shut. “Jamie, come on. Get up.”

He lied still for a few seconds before rolling back over and looking up at the hulking figure that temporarily shielded his eyes from the sunlight behind him.

“Morning…” Jamie grumbled, voice still a bit hoarse from sleep. 

Mako sighed and chuckled, bending over to poke his smaller friend in the ribs, earning him a high-pitched squeal and a giggle. Encouraged, he climbed back into bed and kept poking Jamie, who spasmed and laughed until he was breathless. It was a nice, tender moment for both of them; Mako loved seeing a sleepy Jamie giggling on his bed, knowing he was the one who was making him laugh, Jamie loved being lavished in attention by the only person he was in love with, able to squeal and laugh as much as he wanted to. Without thinking, he wrapped his arms around Mako’s neck and pulled him down with him into the bed sheets. They gently bumped foreheads together.

They stayed that way for a few seconds, Jamie’s eyelids still weighted down by the oppressive burn of a lack of sleep, leaving Mako able to study the merman’s face up close and personal. He never even realized Jamie had a splash of lightly colored freckles on his face, particularly clustered around his nose, and he thought it was the most adorable thing. When Jamie finally opened his eyes, Mako was deeply pulled into the golden orange hues of his eyes. They twinkled with a bit of mischief behind them, melted amber that caught what little bit of light hit them and illuminated their owner’s bright face.  _ He was so beautiful _ . How did he not see this before? He always thought those eyes were so full of life and very expressive, but never really realized the beauty in them until now. He was so blind...

Those amber eyes widened and stared back and Mako didn’t even know why until he pulled back, the warmth of their lips pressing together vanishing… and realized they’d been _ kissing.  _

They were both shocked. 

“U-u-uhm… M-makoshark?” Mako watched as the freckles on Jamie’s face got a bit darker as his face and neck flushed a bright pink.

Mako himself had absolutely no idea why he’d done it. He was just as surprised. “Uh, I… I’m sorry. I have no idea what… why I did that. I don’t know…” he trailed off as he saw a shy grin spreading on Jamie’s face and he cleared his throat. “Let’s just… let’s just get something to eat alright?”

They both awkwardly pushed off of the bed and swam out of the bedroom, going the same route they did the day before, down to the crew barracks. Neither of them spoke, sort of just using the silence to process what just happened in the bedroom a mere minute ago. Jamie trailed behind Mako a bit, as usual, watching the way the mershark’s tail guided him through the water, looking at his arms and hands as he pushed through openings and down narrow rooms. That kiss really _ did _ happen and Mako really  _ did _ have feelings for him, after all! It made him feel all warm inside. 

Once they reached the crew barracks, devoid of octopi this time since the sun was still out, Mako pushed some crates down onto the floor and pried them open. He motioned for Jamie to sit on the bunks that were now free of crates and handed him some fish.

They both sat and ate in silence for a while, Jamie thinking of how to ask Mako about the kiss earlier, Mako thinking of ways to change the subject and have a casual conversation instead. The merman couldn’t stop smiling in between bites.

“Mako…” Jamie finally spoke up after swallowing a bite.

Mako panicked a bit.

“Kiss… before. Makoshark kiss me!” A pause and then a grin. “Maybe… Mako… like me?”

Mako stared at the fish in his hands before finally looking up and meeting Jamie’s gaze. “Well… I don’t know. But what I _do_ know is that I wasn’t supposed to do that.” 

Jamie’s heart deflated. “What… what Mako mean?”

“Jamie… I really do…  _ enjoy  _ your company. I liked having you stay here with me. But no matter how much I like you, or maybe  _ you _ like  _ me _ , we…” He tried looking for the right way to say it without hurting Jamie too much. “We can’t be together.” 

Well, so much for tact. 

A look of surprise flashed over the merman’s face for a moment before being replaced by one of melancholy, much to Mako’s surprise. Maybe Jamie really  _ did _ like him.

A painful silence hung over them and Jamie’s heart felt a little heavier than it did before. Why did Mako kiss him if he didn’t want to be with him at all? That made no sense and it seemed a little bit cruel, to give someone a taste of what they really wanted only to snatch it away. He wished he could express the feeling of anger and sadness he felt, but Mako didn’t speak his language, and he didn’t speak his. Jamie wasn’t even that good at the only shared language they could communicate with. It was all so frustrating!

He didn’t realize he’d been staring down at his half-eaten fish for a while now until Mako finished his and urged him to eat. All of a sudden, Jamie didn’t feel so hungry anymore.

“I leave.” He stated plainly, dropping the fish onto the bunk bed next to him and swimming out of the crew barracks up to the opening that led to rooms above them.

“Jamie!” Mako called. “What’s wrong?”

“I leave. Go home now. Goodbye.” Jamie called over his shoulder as he climbed out of several rooms and swam out to the main deck. He needed hours, maybe even days in order to sit in his house and get over this. He liked Mako a lot, but this sort of thing needed silent contemplation and meditation, away from him.

“Wait, but… is everything alright?” Mako quickly surged forward, blocking the merman from opening the door to his bedroom. “Jamie…”

“Fine. Everything… fine. Go home now.” He gave Mako a small smile but couldn’t muster up the strength to square his shoulders. He just tried hard not to let Mako know how much he was hurting. 

“I heard you the first time. Why are you in such a rush to leave now? Is it because of what I said?” Mako growled.

“Maybe.” Jamie tried his best to look and sound indifferent, attempting to nudge Mako out of the way so he could get his pouch and swim as far away as possible. 

“You know exactly why we can’t be together. Jamie- stop, look at me- Jamie, I like you very much… god, maybe I’m even  _ in love _ with you… but. You know exactly why we can’t be together.”

Jamie looked up into Mako’s eyes and he was struck by how much emotion was held inside of them. Jamie nodded solemnly, swallowing and grinning before replying with a tight “I know.” 

At this, Mako moved out of his way and waited outside as he retrieved his pouch and swam out. 

"Need to think. Goodbye, Makoshark." Jamie parted with those brief words and quickly swam away.

The mershark started to swim after him but decided better of it, simply calling out a quiet goodbye that Jamie wouldn’t hear and heading back into his own room.

Jamie headed down around the ship and back to the route he came, clutching his pouch as he adjusted the straps around his hips and ducked in between buildings. The whole situation had made him forget about the guard hours and patrol routes, but he figured as long as he kept his eyes peeled, he’d be okay. All the while, he kept replaying the scene that unfolded a few minutes ago, unsure of whether he should be mad at himself, Mako, or society in general. It was starting to seem like  _ deja vu _ at this point. 

He was angrily pushing himself off of buildings as he got closer to the wall, closer to freedom and then home, mulling over his shortcomings and feeling just a little bit rebellious. An angry Jamie was a dangerous Jamie sometimes, he tried very hard not to act on impulses but sometimes his emotions got the better of him and the more he thought about that warm kiss, and Mako’s soft belly as they laughed… well, it was just a matter of time before a guard caught him out in broad daylight and yanked him into some ropes so that he’d be carried away.

It didn’t even dawn on him that a guard had seen him and was hauling him to- what, jail maybe?- until he was slung over broad shoulders. The shock sent him squirming and cursing up a storm in his own language. Residents of nearby homes and apartments peeked out of their windows to watch the spectacle of a scrawny “common” merman yelling at one of their own guards as he was carried away to his doom. 

Jamie couldn’t do anything. He was hog-tied, his wrist and tail bound together behind him, limiting his movements, leaving his amputated arm free since it couldn’t do much anyway. The guard held him so that his stomach met her neck, one hand on his upper back and another down his tail, keeping his mouth and claws away from any part of her body. He gave up after a few minutes, dejected but slightly grateful that he wasn’t cast up in a net. That would have really sent him into a flying rage. He wilted, his head hanging low and his body going slack until he finally just squeezed his eyes shut.

This was truly the worst day of his life, which was saying quite a lot. The love of his life rejected him, he got caught and tied up by a guard, and now he’s being hauled off to jail. If the punishments here weren’t as harsh as he thought they were, he was going to leave this city forever and never look back. 

Speaking of punishments… where was this guard taking him? He didn’t get to have a good look, he barely heard her as she yelled at him and tied him up. He looked back down, tilting his head a little so that he could get an upright view of her and saw her scowling profile. She had bright pink hair and an X shaped scar above her right eyebrow, which made her look a bit more intimidating. Jamie vaguely wondered how she got it. 

They were swimming for quite a bit before Jamie finally piped up and asked her where she was taking him in his own language. She ignored him. Oh, of course, she doesn’t speak the language of the “common” mermaids! He tried again, this time in English, hoping perhaps maybe she spoke a bit of it. 

“Where guard taking me?” 

Again, ignored.

Jamie lifted his head to look up at where they were headed, watching as they approached a heavy-looking building probably made out of a repurposed submarine. The windows were barred and the walls were heavily rusted, looming darkly towards the surface. The guard grunted as she shifted Jamie’s weight onto one shoulder to reach for the hatch that opened the door. It swung open with a haunting groan and they swam inside, the guard having at least some decency to make sure the small merman didn’t hit his head on the way in. 

She tossed him down onto some bench that looked a lot like the bunk beds in Mako’s place. Leaning down, she rumbled in a language Jamie couldn't understand at all, shaking a manicured finger in his face and turned to swim away. Several other guards passed back and forth through the room he was being held in, and they only gave him amused glances as they swam by. 

Jamie was mortified at this point. He was laying on his stomach on the bench, unable to even wriggle himself free of the restraints he was in, left scared and vulnerable. Whoever that lady was, she was strong and _way_ too good at tying mermen up. He gave a pitiful whimper before laying his head face down so that he’d never have to look at any of the guard’s faces that passed him. He hated everyone and hoped all of this would soon be over with.   
Minutes turned into hours and the ropes that held Jamie’s tail and wrist together started to burn. His tail ached from being held in one place too long, longing to be able to flex and stretch again. The stream of guards that came into and out of the building started to slow down to a trickle and Jamie eventually resorted to whining and whimpering loudly at anyone that passed by. All of them ignored him. 

He craned his neck and looked behind him at the windows that were high up on the walls, panicking as he saw the waters outside starting to darken. What the hell was taking so long? What was he even waiting for? He wasn’t thrown in jail, he was in some sort of lobby of some building and no one was even acknowledging his existence. So, maybe he wasn’t going to jail after all. Okay, so then what was going to happen?

Finally, after what felt like an eternity, two guards entered the room, followed by the pink haired guard that had dragged him here in the first place. She barked some orders at them and they untied him- thank goodness- but one held onto each arm firmly, still leaving the possibility of escaping out of the picture. She turned and swam away deeper into the building, and all three men followed. They made their way through thin and dark corridors before exiting out of a door that led to a courtyard with dozens of dolphins harnessed to different heavy-looking carriages with barred windows on the sides. Jamie realized that maybe that pink haired lady wasn’t a guard after all, maybe an enforcer?

The guards led Jamie over to one of the carriages and opened the back. Jamie peered inside before one of the guards pulled his arms back and tied them to each other, wrapping the rope all around his torso so that his amputated arm couldn’t be freed. Jamie started to fight back and protest loudly before he was gagged with rope tied into a big ball of a knot. They finished tying the rope around his head and shoved him into the carriage, closing the door and sealing him in darkness. 

A few minutes later the carriage started to move slowly, and Jamie finally got the motivation to peel his cheek off of the bottom to swim up to one of the windows and peer out. They were moving indeed, gradually picking up speed and several buildings flew by the carriage as they headed to the west side of the city. 

Jamie racked his brain, trying to think of where he was being dragged to, until the stream of buildings in the scenery slowly petered off. More seaweed and uninhabited coral started to dot the light colored sand. 

Oh.

Oh no.

He was being hauled off to the castle.

He was going to have to face the royal family. 


	8. Trial

Jamie had no idea when he fell asleep in the midst of this ordeal, but he did. The way to the castle was way longer than he previously thought, so he must have dozed off due to exhaustion. He woke up in the middle of the night to someone unlocking and swinging the door to the carriage open. With his tail now free, the merman tried swimming and dodging past the person, but failed. He was grabbed immediately and some sort of collar was clamped onto his neck, restricting his breathing and making it a bit uncomfortable, paired with the giant knot in his mouth. He growled as he finally got a good look at who was restraining him, and found himself almost face-to-face with a menacing shark mask. The man was a huge, buff mershark, and had a few scars all over his body where he wasn’t covered in gaudy gold armor. He was almost as big as Mako, but not quite.

Another man in a shark mask came up to them, holding a spear, not as big as his partner but still pretty intimidating. He grumbled low at the other mershark and they both took Jamie’s shoulder in one hand, pushing him towards the giant doors of the royal family’s castle. 

They entered, the castle surprisingly bright and full of life at this hour, with several kinds of merpeople swimming to and fro through corridor entrances that lined the wall from floor to ceiling with books and papers in hand. Dolphins, clown fish, angel fish, sea bass, jellyfish, tangs, octopi, and all other kinds of sea life swam and darted about, moving out of the way for the other merpeople hurrying around. The castle itself was absolutely  _ huge _ and extravagant, gold and pearl lining the walls that were made of smooth limestone, a giant chandelier hanging from the domed ceiling made of whale bones and glimmering gems, and intricate designs carved onto the smooth basalt floor detailing the journeys and history of the merpeople since the beginning. At the end of the cavernous room past the thousands of entrances lining the walls, giant gold doors stood dominant.

The guards pushed an awestruck Jamie forward, the creatures parting away from them and moving past them with ease like water flowing past a large rock in a river. Jamie couldn’t stop looking around with stars in his eyes, and if he wasn’t gagged, his mouth would be hanging open anyway. Finally, all three made it to the gold doors, which had to be at least 30 feet tall (9.1m). The door was opened by two beautiful mermaids in shiny costumes, glittering with the jewelry that decorated their bodies. They smiled and spoke the language of the mersharks, most likely greeting the guards, but completely ignoring their held captor. 

The room they entered was even bigger than the other one they were in, if that were even possible. It was a colloseum of a room, the heart of the castle, it seemed. Even more corridor entrances lined the round walls, thousands of gold-lined doorways neatly arranged in straight rows. Four gigantic limestone pillars held the room together, and when Jamie’s eyes followed them up, he found there was a chandelier here as well, but the entire domed ceiling was painted over. Detailed scenes of battle, merpeople building cities, communities getting together, groups of merpeople hunting together, metalsmiths working near hydrothermal vents, several sea creatures all circled together and filled every inch of the dome in a brilliant display of color and light. It almost made Jamie cry at how beautiful it was. 

One of the mershark guards started untying the gag Jamie had, bringing him back to reality. They didn’t untie the ropes around his torso that held his arms together, nor did they remove the rather tight collar around his gills that restricted his breathing, but it was a start. There were four giant doorways in the eastern, western, northern and southern part of the room, all closed tightly, with their own pair of mermaids that looked pretty much the same, attending them. The guards pointed to the set of doors right in front of Jamie, opposite the one they came in. They growled in their language, but he couldn’t understand a thing. He just shook his head.

A guard sneered and laughed at him, but pushed him along anyways. Whatever that guard said, it probably wasn’t too important. The mermaids opened the gigantic doors as he got closer and didn’t even bother to glance in his direction as he passed through. The guard left him at the entrance and swam back, the doors shutting to a close with a thunderous  _ boom _ . Now, it seemed, Jamie was all alone. 

This room was similar to the first one they went through, except that in the very middle, a bunch of extravagant and plush chairs were placed on a circular platform and several other chairs sat at its feet. Entrances lined the round walls of this room too, and all of a sudden, several different merpeople swam out of them, all heading to the chairs that weren’t on the platforms, clutching their books and pens. Jamie watched in awe as they took their seats, fixing their gaudy pearls and delicate gold chains. Shortly after (to Jamie’s surprise), 3 different common mermaids exited from one of the same entrances, looking tired and ready for this whole thing to be done with. 

The biggest one seemed to be the oldest, with long flowing hair as silver as a new pearl matching their tail, and body jewelry draped gracefully from their neck to their hips. They had giant earrings, dozens of bracelets and arm bands, and a tall gold crown fixed on top of their head. Jamie realized with a start that this was the king, the one who ruled over both his and this city. The other two were maybe his children, both wearing tight frilly corsets and matching tiaras. All three of them swam down and took their seats on the platform, preening and fixing their hair for a little bit before glaring down at the scrappy little merman still tied up in front of them.

If one were to look at this scenario from the outside, it’d be as plain as daylight that Jamie stuck out like a sore thumb with his missing arm and torn fins. But at least he wasn’t covered in muck anymore. 

_ So,  _ the king began, his voice stern but still as light and musical as wind chimes,  _ you’re the one attempting to dismantle my reign.  _

Jamie jumped. The king could speak his language? Well, it made sense. Not only did he rule over “common” mermaids, but he also  _ was  _ one. He wondered about that.

_ No… I don’t know what you’re talking about. Uhm, your majesty.  _ Jamie bowed a little, not taking his eyes off of the king even as some of the congregation at the king’s feet murmured disapprovingly and wrote things in their books. 

The king squinted and tossed his head, pointing a long manicured fingernail at Jamie.  _ Lying to me in front of the royal congregation is  _ very _ bold of you. You… you’ve been running around with my head enforcer and luring him away from his duties! Several people have come to me with corroborating stories of him visiting the lower city. It’d be best for you to tell the truth.   _

_ But I-  _ Jamie began, the king loudly interrupting him before he could get another word in.

_ And there could only be one reason for targeting the head of the enforcers; you’re trying to get into the city, stop the enforcement of the law and dismantle the royal family! _

Jamie was confused. Maybe the evidence really did point to that conclusion, but he didn’t know how. He just wanted to hang out with Mako. There really wasn’t any malintent in his visit. 

_ Well, your  _ royal  _ majesty. I didn’t mean to cause any alarm in your… castle. Uh, I didn’t mean any harm by- _

_ No harm?  _ The king’s ethereal facade was immediately dropped as he jumped up, face as red as a lobster.  _ Even if you didn’t intend on overthrowing me, you still broke a cardinal rule of the city and distracted a high ranking officer of the law. Either way, you’re a criminal!!  _ The king shouted, the words he spoke laced with poison. This guy really didn’t like Jamie, he was red in the face, his breathing became labored, and the frilly fins on the side of his head flared out menacingly. The king was absolutely  _ pissed. _

_ Y-you’re right.  _ Jamie stuttered, bowing his head. There really wasn’t anything he could say at this point. No matter how one put it, he really was breaking lots of laws. However, Jamie was emboldened by one question:  _ But why do the laws I’m breaking exist in the first place? _

The king and the congregation all looked up at him with various expressions of surprise. One of his two children laughed and their father had to shush them.

_ I mean, aren’t you also a common mermaid? I don’t understand why you’ve added extra protection and made it harder for people to travel to and from the city. It wasn’t like this years ago.  _ Jamie wished he could’ve pointed a finger if he wasn’t tied up.  _ It wasn’t like this before you took the throne. _

It was true. The king was also an illegitimate heir to the throne, since the royal line was supposed to be a matriarchy, but he lucked out when both of his sisters died of “mysterious circumstances.” Everyone suspected it was him that killed them (or had them killed), but before anyone could really do anything about it, it was already too late. The greedy and paranoid king held onto his power tightly and made several changes to the existing laws to prevent anyone from legally kicking him out. That included the construction of the city walls.

General opinion on him was mixed in the higher city. He made the city flourish, creating more jobs and generating more trade, but he was paranoid. Several executions were made on a whim, law enforcement grew stricter, and he mistreated so many of the castle attendants that many of them quit within a week of his coronation ceremony. Needless to say, he was a grumpy asshole. 

Upon realizing that, it all made sense to Jamie. It dawned on him that maybe he’d be another one to get executed.

_ This blatant disrespect and mutiny against me will not go unpunished!  _ The king roared, _ You, lowly filthy merman, shall be sentenced- _

The doors behind Jamie slammed open, making everyone jump in fright. Jamie whirled around to see...Mako! He looked disheveled and frantic as ever, but once he looked past Jamie’s head to see the king, he transformed into something the merman had never seen before.

And, so did the king. 

The king melted into a sweet and placid disposition. He babbled something sweet in another language Jamie couldn’t understand while he watched as Mako swiped a hand through his hair and did the best impression of a stone wall. He swam forward, laying a giant hand on Jamie’s shoulders and rumbled deeply to the king.

A pause.

The king called out to his congregation and nodded solemnly at Mako, wagging a finger in his direction before all 3 of the royal family members departed, heading back to where they came from. Guards entered the room and escorted both Jamie and Mako to a side entrance on the right. They all swam down a long and dark corridor before reaching a small room at the end. Once they both entered, Mako nodded at the guard and he untied the ropes that still bound Jamie’s arms to his torso. Then, they were left alone after the guard exited and shut the doors behind him. 

Jamie immediately jumped into Mako’s arms and started to ask questions. “What happen?? Mako, miss you!!! I die? You save me? What happen?!” He rubbed Mako’s arm and then his own stump, relieved that the ropes were finally gone. Not the collar, though. 

Mako sighed deeply and massaged Jamie’s shoulders, looking down on him sternly. “I asked the king to join in the trial.”

“Trial?” Jamie blinked.

“You broke a lot of laws, and now you’re being tried in the royal… ‘court’ for your crimes. But so did I, and knowing the king, he most definitely won’t kill you if  _ I _ can help it. I’m not surprised they sprang this all on you without telling you a thing.”

Jamie was still confused. “But.. what happen now?”

“Listen. The king is a paranoid tyrant. He won’t let us go entirely freely, but we’ll both get through this alive if you let me do the talking, alright? Just let me handle this. Don’t worry.”

Jamie pushed off away from Mako’s hands and glared. “Makoshark…  _ you _ get us trouble!”

“I know, I’m sorry. I knew I shouldn’t have done this. I shouldn’t have brought you to this city… but you also shouldn’t have left in such a hurry.”

“Other fish see you  _ before, _ Mako.” Jamie pointed out, accusingly.

A deep sigh. “I know! I know… god, you’re right. This really is all my fault.” Mako rubbed his face with both webbed hands. “I know. I’m lousy… but I’m going to get us out of this mess, I promise.” He reached forward and pulled Jamie into a hug, which they both enjoyed. It had barely been 24 hours since they last saw each other, but it felt like an eternity. 

Jamie pulled back. “How Mako know I here?”  
“One of my frie- one of the enforcers told me they apprehended you. I didn’t know it was you at the time, but… they warned me that I should lay low and stay hidden from the king for a while, and when I asked them why, they told me that everyone basically saw us together. A lot. That’s when I rushed over here as fast as I could. My god, Jamie, I’m so sorry.” Another tight hug, Jamie patted Mako’s back and enjoyed the warmth and closeness they shared while he could. 

“I know this really doesn’t help my case.”  
“Case?”  
“You were mad at me before. That’s why you ran away and got caught in the first place. I really didn’t think it’d all lead to this.”

A pause. “Mako… I not mad. Sad.” Jamie rubbed his stump and lowered his gaze.

“Sad? Well… either way, I’m sorry. When we get out of this, I promise I’m not going to be a coward anymore. We’re going-”

Their tender moment was interrupted by the same guard returning and opening the door. He rumbled something to Mako in their language and turned to leave. Mako nodded at Jamie solemnly and squared his shoulders, taking the merman’s hand in his own giant one before following the guard down the corridor. 

* * *

 

The congregation and royal family were back to their place when they went back to the throne room. An extra person was there, a studious looking woman wearing glasses stood with her hands clasped behind her back near the congregation, her turquoise tail glimmering under the light of the chandelier in the room. 

Mako and Jamie took their place in front of the congregation, and Jamie watched Mako closely as he returned back to his stony self. Then, he looked at the king who was basically making goo-goo eyes at him. If their situation wasn’t so grave right now, Jamie would’ve laughed.

The woman with the glasses spoke up, addressing Mako first. She said what she had to say in a feathery voice, and although her tone was kind and warm, what she had to say made Mako go a little pale in the face. He said something back to her and swallowed. Then, she turned to Jamie.

_ Hello! I shall be your translator for this trial.  _ She spoke the language of the common mermaids well, even if she had a bit of an accent.  _ The king will be speaking this language to you, and I’ll be translating the events to Makoshark. Can I ask your name? _

_ Jamie.  _ He answered plainly, glancing at Mako who still looked visibly perturbed. So if the king was really only going to speak directly to Jamie, this meant trouble. Mako knew the king and how to sweet talk his way out of things. Jamie didn’t. Their entire plan relied on Mako, and the king completely took that out of the equation. Besides, who knew if the translator would even translate accurately at all? She could be one of the king’s corrupted goonies, paid to purposely sabotage the trial and at least result in Jamie’s death.

The trial was beginning. The king never looked more pleased, and his kids never looked more bored. 

_ Lucky you, little Jamie. Your  _ friend  _ has decided to own up for his crimes too. I’ve been told it was him who plotted to smuggle you in here by illegitimate means. Is this true? Do tell the truth, please. If I believe you’re lying, you’ll be in a bit of pain.  _ The king grinned wickedly as he pulled out a remote control device and thumbed the button on it playfully as the translator politely spoke to Mako. 

The realization sunk into Jamie’s stomach like a rock. The collar around his neck wasn’t one to restrain his breathing. It was a  _ shock collar. _

He glanced at Mako before licking his lips and answering.  _ Yes, he and I plotted to… get me into the city. _

_ And why didn’t you just buy a special pass in the first place? _

Jamie thought about that for a second. Why wasn’t the woman translating this to Mako? She just stayed silent. So he was right after all.

_ I… I guess I didn’t have any money. And well… we wanted to get me in for free. The passes were too expensive. _

The king tittered, looking very smug.  _ I think with Mako’s salary, that wouldn’t have been too much of an issue. Unless… you wanted to keep coming in  _ multiple times  _ for free. _

_ T-that’s right.  _ God, Jamie hated this prick.

_ Mhmm, and for what? To smuggle in illegal items? Weaponry maybe? More people? _

_ No. Just… I-I just wanted to be with Mako. A lot.  _ Jamie hung his head in shame. Now it was starting to sound like he wanted to marry Mako, which was also against the king’s oppressive laws. “Common” mermaids weren’t allowed to breed with merpeople of the higher city, another reason why people hated him.

It was then that the translator started speaking to Mako at length, and he became more and more stone-faced as she spoke. That was not a good sign. He tried talking, but the king shushed him quickly and said something to him that really made him angry. 

Jamie wasn’t very good at this, and if they ended up dying, he knew it was all going to be his fault.

The king turned back to him once again.  _ Well, seems like you’re both guilty of breaking several of my laws no matter how we put it. So, you’re free to go. Mako is going to stay here and I will interrogate him as you head back to the room you were in.  _ He motioned to the side entrance and Jamie felt himself roughly pulled by a strong hand back to the corridor. He tossed one last glance over his shoulder at Mako, who looked as intimidating as he’s ever been. He looked like he would rip off the king’s head any minute now, but was holding himself back. 

* * *

 

After several minutes of fidgeting in a small and mostly empty room, the doors flew open and Jamie rushed forward to greet an angry Mako who snatched his arm from the grip of the guard who brought him there. The doors slammed behind him, making Jamie back up in case Mako decided to blow up. 

Surprisingly, Mako’s expression softened and he finally looked up at Jamie who was cowering in the corner, staring at him with wide eyes. 

“Jamie… I don’t think this is going to work out well.” Mako said softly, and Jamie swam back to him to gently take his hand.

“Makoshark… uhm… I sorry. Not… said good things.”

“Don’t worry about that. None of this is your fault. That snake changed up the rules on us and I wouldn’t be surprised if that was because one of his brainless guards was eavesdropping on us while we talked here. He isn’t too smart to come up with something like that on his own, you know?”

Jamie nodded, grateful the mershark wasn’t angry at  _ him.  _ That would’ve just added another layer of unpleasantness to the whole situation. 

“What happen now?”

“I don’t know. He wasn’t too happy I was frolicking with you and being late to my duties. If I hadn’t been so careless all of this could’ve been avoided, but… let’s just hope he  _ likes me _ enough to give us jail time, at worst.”

Jamie cocked his head in confusion. “Like you?”  
Mako grew visibly uncomfortable. “Well, everyone in the city knew the king favored me over others. He was going to make me leader of the royal guard if I hadn’t stopped him. Leading the guarding of the castle is the highest honor a royal could bestow onto someone... but it was a very restricting job. Being an enforcer’s better.” He coughed a bit before continuing. “Anyways, yeah. The king gave me that position, more power than the head of enforcing ever needed, and hit on me several times. He’s… nevermind. Just forget about it.”

Jamie laughed loudly, making Mako’s face turn a bright shade of pink. “ _ Listen _ , it’s not something I asked for, alright?” Mako growled, playfully slapping the merman’s arm.

“King like Mako!” Jamie howled, before turning very serious all of a sudden. “Why not marry king then?”

Mako detested the very idea of it, incredulous that Jamie would even suggest it, but then he remembered that many other people in the past asked him the same question before. The king had a personality so horrible and unbearable that marriage was out of the question for him. How he even managed to marry a beautiful mermaid who gave birth  _ twice _ before dying was a mystery to all. When brought up, everyone who gave it even a second of thought agreed that if Mako ever decided to get with the king, it would end badly. The king was cowardly, pathetic, paranoid, and overbearing as all hell. Mako enjoyed freedom and was the bravest mershark anyone in both cities have ever known. He fought for other people’s freedoms, too, and often ended up clashing so much with the king over many things. 

But even though they argued a lot, the king absolutely  _ loved  _ Mako. Foot servants and maids would run directly to their friends to gossip about how much the king fantasized over Mako. His diary was one very long and very embarrassingly-written erotica. The enforcers would pick up wind of the stories and tease their boss to no end, until his face was as red as a lobster and he had to tell them to shut up.

Mako shook the horrible memories out of his head and came back to the present. “Nevermind that. Jamie, listen. The king may like me, but he certainly doesn’t like you. If the verdict is that I live and you die because of that, I’m going to make sure within everything in my power that it doesn’t happen. Ever. You’re safe with me, Jamie. No one is going to hurt you.”

“Well…” Jamie started, trying to figure out how to phrase it, “what we both die?”  
“Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that. I tried to convince him as best as I could that this whole ordeal wasn’t because we were plotting to _kill_ him. I told him we were in love and planning on eloping after our illegitimate marriage.” He said it with such a straight face, Jamie almost believed it at first. 

“What?” The merman said incredulously, nervously chuckling in case Mako really  _ was _ joking. 

“You heard me.”

“Not true…”  
“Yes, I said it. It’s not the truth, but the king believes it and now he’s going to have to talk to the congregation about our punishment based on that.”

“We die?!” Jamie yelped and grabbed his neck, absolutely sure that the king’s jealousy-fueled rage would have both their heads floating now.

“Hopefully  _ not.”  _ Mako said firmly. “He can’t kill us over one attempt at ‘illegitimate breeding’. The congregation wouldn’t let him do that. If he did, there’d be a riot and he knows it.”

“Oh… good.” Jamie sighed quietly and gave Mako yet another hug. This one wasn’t brief, they hung onto each other tightly for a while until the doors opened and the guard grunted at them. Mako asked something and the guard simply shrugged. They followed him down the corridor for the 2nd time into the throne room, which was completely empty this time. They stood side-by-side again as they waited for the group to return from deciding their fate.

Several minutes passed. They glanced at each other and then back up to the entrances expectantly, wondering why they were called back into the room if the king wasn’t done deciding yet. 

After several more silent minutes, Mako leaned over to Jamie. “You, uh… you haven’t spoken any English to anyone in the castle right?” He whispered quietly, looking around to see if anyone had heard him. The guard that escorted them was gone, much to his relief. 

Jamie was confused at the peculiarity of the question. “Uhm… no. No English.” He whispered back. 

“Good. Don’t say a word in English. That will result in death for sure.”

At that moment, everyone swam out of the entrances once more and took their places for the last time, all except the king’s two children who were most likely put back to bed. The king fixed his crown and his hair for a bit again, both Jamie and Mako watching him intently as he did so. Then, he barked something out and a chubby merman who looked to be a kind of meroctopus swam up and handed him a rolled up parchment. 

The king ceremoniously unrolled it and cleared his throat dramatically. Jamie didn’t need to look over at Mako’s reaction to all this extra behavior, he just knew Mako was rolling his eyes. 

_ Head of the Royal Law Enforcement Brigade, Sir Makoshark and… Jamie.  _ The king spoke in Jamie’s language, letting the translator do her job by pausing every sentence or so.  _ Your verdict for the crimes of attempting illegitimate breeding and unlawfully entering the high city without legal passes will not go unpunished.  _ A pause.  _ The congregation and the royal family have come to a decision as to what charges you both will face.  _ Another pause. Jamie felt like his chest was going to burst, the suspense making him hold his breath.

_ The punishment is as follows; you are both banished from the cities under my rule. Forever.  _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aaayyee we're almost done! I'm proud of my determination to finish this, and the fact that I could even manage to get to the end! Finished, not perfect, right? Either way, I hope y'all enjoyed this up to now. Last chapter will, as always, be up next Saturday, and then I'm done, done, done.   
> Might write some more of these two in other AUs, might write some more smut one-shots, who knows? Whatever happens, I'm always grateful for the comments and the kudos you guys leave. Thank you so much for taking the time to read my stuff!


	9. Freedom

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yoooo! I did it! We're finally done with this fic, 9 whole chapters and a roller coaster of a plot later. This has been my first fic I've written after 3 years and I wrote 9 whole chapters, wow. Gotta give myself a pat on the back. And I've gotta give you a pat on the back for sticking with this fic and reading it all the way through! Thank you so much, especially to those who have left kudos and super nice comments, I really appreciate y'all.   
> I am writing other fics of these two, already have like 2 nsfw fics up in another AU in case you didn't know. I will be continuing to write about Jamie and Mako, I love them too much not to! Hope you guys stick around for those. Thanks again!

Mako and Jamie gaped at the king, who still held the parchment open and looked down on them with his head held high. 

Mako was the first to speak after the translator told him what had occurred.  _ I-I’m sorry, what?  _ He rumbled, blinking a few times. 

The king spoke to him in his language and it was translated back to Jamie. Both of them took a moment to let it sink in. Jamie grinned and opened his mouth to thank the king for such a lenient punishment, but Mako saw it coming from a mile away and jumped to clamp a huge paw over his face. 

_ Uhm, yes, alright. We understand, your highness.  _

The king tossed the parchment to the side and crossed his arms defiantly.  _ You are to gather your things and vacate your homes in 5 days. By the time the 5 days are up, and you both have not left the cities then, you’ll both be executed.  _

Mako grinned.  _ There _ it is. He was starting to worry whether the king had lost his murderous tendencies. 

_ I hope to never see either of you ever again.  _ The king was visibly upset, wiping fake tears away and jingling his jewelry angrily in the process.  _ Mako, I’m  _ very  _ disappointed in you. I placed so much trust in the security of our cities in your hands and you were doing so well… until now. Begone. Both of you.  _

Both Jamie and Mako bowed deeply once the trial was brought to a close, staying put until everyone had vacated the room. Once the last merperson disappeared, they jumped into each other’s arms, Jamie trilling loudly and happily. 

“We alive!! Mak-”

Mako shushed him quickly before pulling him by the arm through the giant doors, past the heart of the castle and back into the entrance room where everything seemed to be not as busy as before. They linked hands together and spun between all the floating jellyfish, dolphins watching their celebration and eventually joining in, squeaking in delight. Jamie was ecstatic, joining in with the dolphin calls and laughing loudly. 

They eventually stopped twirling when some merpeople poked their heads into the room and stared at them from above. 

“Alright,” Mako leaned in close to Jamie’s face and whispered, “let’s get out of here and start packing immediately. The sun’s just rising and I know neither of us got much sleep, but the sooner we start our voyage, the better it’ll be.”

Jamie blinked. “Uhm… voyage?”

“Oh, of course. I saw that you rummaged through some of my maps in the library the other night. The city you saw in one of them is one I planned to move to earlier, but I never got to it.”

Jamie’s eyes lit up, but then he remembered the map pointed to an X that was across the entire Atlantic ocean, thousands of miles away from where they were. How were they to carry all their things all that way? Well, that was a problem to be left for later. 

They held hands once more, exiting the castle. The waters were a deep shade of pink as the sun rose behind them, tinting everything around them in dark hues of pink and orange. Jamie waved enthusiastically at all the confused guards wandering around while Mako swam toward one that was hitching up some dolphins to a large carriage. 

_ Listen,  _ he started menacingly, squaring his shoulders and straightening his back, _ I may no longer be the head of the enforcers here anymore. But as one last order from me, you’re going to take both of us back to the galleon ship in the high city. Understood? _

_ No need to threaten me, sir,  _ the mershark guard stated placidly,  _ give me directions and I’ll take you where you need to go. _

_ Oh, I take it you’ve also heard of me?  _

The guard smiled.  _ Hasn’t everyone? _

That was good enough for Mako. He ushered Jamie into the carriage and climbed in after as the guard finished up with the harnesses. Not long after that, they started moving, picking up speed and watching as the huge castle got farther and farther away. 

Jamie leaned on Mako’s arm and looked up at him adoringly. “Mako love me…” he whispered before closing his eyes and quickly falling asleep. It seemed he didn’t get much sleep nowadays.

Mako settled his bulk comfortably and gave the guard the directions to his home quietly, shifting the sleeping merman onto his soft belly so that he could throw an arm over him and keep him warm. He decided, as he looked down onto Jamie’s half-bald head and stroked it, that they would have a proper meal first before packing and heading out. He had half the mind to steal one of these carriages and keep the dolphins as pets, but that would be asking for too much. Instead, he held Jamie tightly and closed his eyes. The ride was long and quiet, the sounds of distant whale songs and rushing water soothing the silence, and before long, the waters went from being tinted a deep pink to slowly coming to life with a bright blue hue. 

* * *

 

The guard woke them up not too long after Mako finally fell asleep, banging loudly on the door and causing them to jolt awake. 

Mako rubbed his eyes groggily as he peered out the carriage window and looked at his looming ship. Home. The whole castle trial ordeal had taken  _ hours _ for him, and it seemed like an eternity. His problems paled in comparison when he glanced down at Jamie who was quietly complaining as he stretched his tail, knowing that Jamie had been taken around noon the day before and probably didn’t have much sleep since he woke up around then. 

But it was all over. Soon, they’d be in a new city, and they could start life all over again together. Mako wouldn’t be lonely this time, he had an adventurous friend by his side and could start up his expeditions around the ocean with him.

_ Friend.  _ Hm. That would be something they’d have to address sooner than later. 

They swam out of the carriage and thanked the guard for the very long ride. Mako urged Jamie to go ahead while he took off the gold band around his tail and handed it to the guard.

_ Do whatever you want with this, I don’t need it anymore.  _ Mako shrugged and turned to head up to his room. He was stopped by a hand on his shoulder.

_ Well now, look where we are. I knew the reign of that crazy tyrant would result in the loss of something great. Now we have no brave hero protecting our city anymore.  _ The guard smiled kindly and held out his hand. 

Mako smiled back and took it, giving it a firm shake.  _ Well, we’ll see how soon it’ll be until the king finally regrets this decision. But… oh well. We’ll be long gone before that happens. _

The guard gestured towards Jamie’s direction in which he’d gone, raising a brow.  _ Ah, you been with this scrawny shrimp for a while? Seems pretty below you. Either way, I wish both of you the best with your uhm… relationship.  _

Mako suddenly clamped a claw on his shoulder and gave a terrifying grin, leaning in close so that he loomed over him menacingly.  _ Keep your judgements to yourself, sir. Have a good day.  _

He never saw anyone climb onto a carriage and drive away so fast in his life. 

With that taken care of, he turned and swam up to his room, opening the door to find the hatch that led to the library flung open. The light was on and sounds of shuffling papers could be heard from the opening. That was fast.

Mako swam to the hatch and poked his head inside, watching as Jamie unrolled and rolled parchment after parchment. This went on for a little while before Mako finally asked what he was doing. 

“Oh…” Jamie said nonchalantly, “just find map! Mako… city looong long long way.”

“I know,” Mako swam in and placed a hand on the merman’s shoulder. “But, it’s our best bet of finding civilization to settle into.”

_ “Why?” _ Jamie seemed very displeased, wrinkling his nose.

“Why what?”

“No need city. Live by self!”   


“I don’t think that’d be a good idea. Just us two without any sort of protection?” Mako grunted.

“Have you! Makoshark strong!”

Mako chuckled and shook his head. “Let’s give the city a chance. If it doesn’t work out, we’ll bail. I promise.”

Jamie started to complain, but Mako shut him up with a quick kiss to the forehead, which made the merman forget about it all for a little while. Then, he returned back to the parchments, unrolling the one of the Atlantic Ocean again. 

“Mako… where you get map?” He inquired curiously, staring at the lines and markings hastily drawn all over. 

“Oh, I… just took them from sunken ships and humans.”

“Hmmm,” Jamie narrowed his eyes at Mako. “So… Mako near human, hm?”

“It’s not like that, Jamie.”

“Mhm.” Jamie turned back with his nose in the air, pretending to ignore Mako.

“Oh, don’t be a hypocrite. You  _ talked _ to the sailors on the boats and learned from them. I usually killed them after.”

“How Mako know I learn?”   


They stared at each other for a second.

“Okay, okay!” Jamie laughed and gave up. “I learn from sailor, true. But Makoshark learn, too...”

Mako didn’t argue back, poking Jamie in the ribs continuously until he practically fell over from his laughing fit. 

Once they both recollected themselves, they put the parchments away and headed down to the barracks again. Mako told Jamie of their plans on how to move and exactly how much stuff they could carry. Jamie lamented about all of his junk that he collected, how much of it would have to be left behind. They sat down on the bunks they did the day before, munching on fish again. Jamie ate quickly and enthusiastically, scarfing down bones and all, not letting an inch of his meal go to waste. Mako winced a bit as he saw him gobble down the head of the fish, but said nothing otherwise, until both of them were done. 

When both of them were full and satisfied, they talked.

“We have 5 days and limited resources to get out of the cities. I suppose now would be a good time to make a list of all the stuff we would need.” Mako shrugged as he rubbed his huge stomach. 

Jamie slouched in his seat, belly rounder than its usual concave appearance, eyes half-lidded. He yawned and scratched his chest. “Mmmn, maybe sleep first...” He mumbled.

Mako was inclined to agree, feeling the exhaustion weigh on his eyelids as well. Neither of them had been able to sleep very much, especially during a pretty stressful time, and it was finally catching up to them. But he also had a gnawing feeling in his gut that maybe 5 days wasn’t enough time for them to gather up their things and leave. Besides, he wanted to leave as soon as possible. 

“Jamie,” he said after a long yawn overtook him, “I know you’re tired. I am, too. But I don’t think we should head to bed before we start packing. I want us to leave as soon as we possibly can, to get a head start. Let’s just grab some crates and sacks and fill them up as much as possible. Then, I promise you can sleep for as long as you want after.”

Jamie looked very displeased at first, but eventually resigned and got up with much difficulty, gathering as many woven sacks as he could. Mako followed soon after, tucking some crates under his arm and heading out to his room.

* * *

 

It was day 3 of their limited time window to leave the city, and they made some pretty good progress. Mako gave many of his things to local shopkeepers in order to sell, like his books, bed, and parchments. He even sold his trophies that he acquired on his legendary expeditions, including the necklace of teeth he wore and added to for so long. Before long, the entire city knew about Mako’s situation. Guards that patrolled the walls let both Jamie and Mako pass between cities freely as a last-minute favor. Grateful admirers and shopkeepers alike all over the city offered helping hands, and in the process, Mako gained a dolphin-drawn carriage just like he originally wanted. 

It took a while for Mako to convince Jamie to do the same with his piles of junk at home, and he eventually did, but not with much luck. His stuff wasn’t accepted by nearly any of the vendors in either city, and if it was, it would be bought for a very low price. A lot of his stuff was passed on over to the Black Water market, an illegal underground trading route filled with criminals and the corrupt. No merperson, unless crazy or just curious, would fork over money for something that was banned across many mermaid societies in all 5 oceans. This discouraged Jamie a lot. 

_ “Makoooo…” _ Jamie whined at the mershark one day, arms laden with tons of his human items. “No fish want treasure! I keep, Mako!” He clutched his stuff protectively.

Mako sighed as he loaded another crate to the back of the carriage and cracked his neck. “Jamie, I already told you; if you can’t sell it, just give it away.”

Jamie adamantly refused and pointed out that there was enough space in the carriage to throw in a sackful of his things. At least  _ just one.  _ Then he complained loudly that it wasn’t fair that they were bringing a lot of Mako’s useless things, but none of Jamie’s.

“None of this is useless.” Mako grunted as he tossed a sack into the carriage. “Besides, it’s light stuff. No books, no bed, and no  _ heavy _ metal junk.” He pointed accusingly at a broken off boat propeller that laid by Jamie’s tail fin. 

Jamie pouted and eventually turned away sadly, swimming off to make a small pile of his stuff near Mako’s ship-house. He got Mako to write a little note and stick it on the pile in case any wandering merperson was curious and, on the off-chance, wanted to take something. Once that was settled, and they both checked and double checked their inventory, they agreed that it was high time they should take their leave.

But of course, as soon as Mako harnessed the dolphins after feeding them, a group of his rowdy enforcer friends came swimming down to say their final goodbyes. The mersharks swam in circles around each other and clapped each other on their backs, talking and rumbling loudly. Jamie watched with wide eyes from the carriage, a safe distance from the commotion. His curiosity peaked every time they laughed. Strangely enough, when their voices lowered and their facial expressions seemed more sincere, none of them hugged or even touched besides an affectionate clap on the back. He found this very strange. From his experience, goodbyes were filled with tears and hugs. Maybe mersharks just weren’t so affectionate. It explains Mako’s initial shock at Jamie’s more “friendly” behaviours.

After a few more minutes, and some furtive glances cast in Jamie’s direction, the group of enforcers finally parted ways. Mako returned to the carriage and climbed up next to Jamie, taking the reigns in his hands.

“Miss friends?” Jamie sat with his pouch in his hand, looking up at Mako.

The dolphins started swimming with a tug of the reigns and they rode in silence for a little while before Mako answered.

“Uh, yeah. I will miss them, I guess. But hopefully we’ll make new friends in the future.”

Jamie sat quietly for a little while before piping up. “Makoshark house?”   


“What?”   


“What happen, Mako house?”   


Mako still didn’t understand. “What do you mean, what will happen to my ship-house?”

Jamie nodded.

“Oh. Well, you know real estate. They jumped on the opportunity to inspect my house the second they heard I was leaving. I got that taken care of. What about yours?”   


Jamie shrugged, looking ahead at the dark expanse of the ocean that stretched out before them. “Don’t know… not mine.”

Mako glanced down and put an arm around Jamie’s skinny shoulders. 

“Well, doesn’t matter. We’re out of there now and nothing can stop us now. We can pick those English lessons back up. You really need those.”

Jamie grinned and snuggled into Mako’s side.  _ “And fish!!!” _ He said loudly, mouth gaping as wide as his eyes were, making Mako laugh.  _ This _ was the Jamie he fell in love with. 

“And daily baths. You’re going to live like a normal merman, I’m gonna make sure of it.” Mako rumbled affectionately, a bit embarrassed at the level of love he was openly showing, but not really caring a bit. 

The carriage picked up speed and they found themselves swimming way above the lower city, watching as “common” mermaids swam out of their abodes and wave. Jamie waved back happily, not minding a bit that he was saying a proper goodbye to people who kicked him down and left him on his own. He was going to leave those very people behind anyways. 

Then, the carriage soared through the water past the busy hydrothermal vents in the ocean floor, dodging hot water currents shooting up. Then, the vast expanse of the ocean overtook them and from wherever the eye could see, there was just darkness. Soon after, the ocean floor dropped sharply below them and they were completely overtaken by black waters. They sank a little deeper into the ocean, their eyes adjusting to the darkness of the ocean as usual, their collapsible lungs working to give enough oxygen to the rest of the body. 

It was peaceful, like this. Not saying a thing and watching the sceneries as they traveled, looking at the various species of fish they swam by, stopping to find underwater caves in order to sleep in, breaching the surface for some gulps of air. They caught fish together and pored over the map together, arguing whether or not they wanted to head straight to the city or take some detours. Jamie wanted to explore; he’d never been this far from the city  _ ever _ and wanted to explore the many sunken ships they found along their journey. Mako countered it by promising Jamie they’d explore the entire damn ocean, but only after they could finally get some stability in life.

“We need a home to put what we find in, right? So we need to get to this city first.” Mako grumbled.

“Make ship home!” Jamie threw up his hands in exasperation. “No need city!”

“Yes we do, Jamie. We need more than each other to look after ourselves.”

“Homebody.” Jamie spoke the word as if it was an insult and proudly puffed out his chest for remembering such a word.

Mako narrowed his eyes at him. “Where’d you learn that?”

Jamie stuck his tongue out at the mershark and swam back into the cave they were currently squatting in. 

Mako laughed and shook his head, but didn’t argue anymore. 

It took around two months for their journey to end. Along the way, Jamie was tired of travelling and accused the map of being something produced from someone’s imagination. “Fake map,” he muttered angrily as he batted it with his tail. It took a lot of bickering and compromise to let the trip run as smoothly as possible, and there were moments where Mako would lie on his side with a sleeping Jamie next to him, wondering if the map he got from that human he killed so long ago really  _ was _ the real deal. They had accurately depicted the higher city, down to its location. Maybe Mako was putting too much faith in them. But they finally made it, running dangerously low on provisions. Even the dolphins were becoming visibly irritated with the mileage that they were made to cover. 

Once they reached the city, everyone let out a sigh of relief. The dolphins picked up their pace as they got closer and parked just on the outskirts. Several different faces popped up from behind buildings and mountains of rock, staring a bit at the two straggly and tired-looking newcomers. One of them popped out from behind a house and swam towards them, a chubby and beautiful mermaid with dark but vibrant scales all over her body. She greeted them warmly, and even though they didn’t really share a common language, Jamie could still pick up a few words that were similar to his. They spoke in this simplified pidgin mer-speak for a bit, communicating the important ideas before the mermaid pointed up to a big mountain looming over the small city. She said, according to Jamie’s understanding, that the central government that ran the city lied in the cave system there and that this was a primarily cave-dwelling species of “common” mermaids. It wasn’t like the coral-reliant city the two left behind. 

The merman thanked her and returned to Mako, explaining what he had heard. The residents here seemed friendly enough, both of them had high hopes for this place. It wasn’t as big and populated, either. It seemed like this was going to go well.

They hugged, extremely glad that this was all over and that they could finally truly rest. They were in their new home, and no one was going to cause them any more trouble from here on out. 

“Mako,  _ we did it!” _ Jamie squealed and trilled happily, giving Mako another tight hug and burying his face in his chest. His English was a lot better thanks to the long trip. With nothing much to do besides count fish, hunt fish, and play with the dolphins, it wasn’t hard to convince Mako to pick up with the English lessons again and teach Jamie how to read some of it. The merman was a fast learner, Mako soon realized afterwards. 

“Yes… we did.” Mako sighed deeply, giving Jamie a gentle squeeze before pulling away. “This is our new home now.”

“Go to cave now!” Jamie tugged on Mako’s hand and hopped back into the seat of the carriage, pointing towards the mountain with various swiss-cheese holes and strung-up lights in it. Mako chuckled and followed Jamie, taking the reigns in his hands once more and urging the dolphins just a bit further. He and Jamie glanced lovingly at each other as they slowly made their way towards the cave system, passing by other cave openings that various other merpeople and fish darted in and out of.

This was it, this city mostly enshrouded in darkness from how deep below the surface it was. And that wasn’t counting the depths of the caves in the ocean floor. But no matter where they settled, Mako felt he would always be happy so long as he had Jamie with him. With this thought, he leaned over and planted a quick kiss on Jamie’s cheek, much to the small merman’s surprise. They stared at each other for a bit before leaning forward, sighing softly and finding themselves in each other’s arms just a few minutes later, kissing and bumping foreheads affectionately. It was then that-- with Jamie in his arms-- Mako realized home wasn’t a place anywhere in any of the 5 oceans in the world. It was the scrawny giggling merman stroking his jaw with one webbed hand, wiggling his scarred orange tail as he sat on his lap. It was the merman with mischief flashing in his liquid gold eyes fixed on a freckled face. 

And he was absolutely fine with that.


End file.
